A Claptrap's Revolution
by Nicksta101
Summary: The second part to "A Claptrap's Existence" following the tale of the lonely Claptrap in Old Haven as he joins the Robot Revolution!
1. A Claptrap's Revolution

_**A Claptrap's Revolution**_

_**Secret Hyperion Cave**_

Claptrap followed his companion through the threshold and into the cave where the rock slid back into place cutting off the shards of light from the sky. Claptrap stood still in the dark shivering, terrified at what was to come. Should he have followed the red Claptrap module into the cave? Should he have gone back home, if he still had a home? The questions remained questions until the light returned but this time artificially. Lights flickered on in the distance, one after another. The path was laid out before them, a narrowed walkway that twisted as far as Claptrap could see. This was a poorly designed catacomb with rope lining out above where the light bulbs hung. The red Claptrap was already moving forwards, he looked back and gestured for Claptrap to follow. The two little droids moved at normal pace along the walkway navigating their way around the pointy corners of the cave.

Claptrap looked at the walls either side of him, there were posters stuck to the walls of a heroically proud Claptrap saluting with Claptrap's behind him saluting to the sky. Claptraps were the lowest of all sentient life on Pandora, they had no rights and they took abuse from every life form known on Pandora. But, there they were. At the forefront of a large poster on the wall. Further along the cave there were more posters, mostly showing the same image but inspirational was beyond what Claptrap was feeling right now. He couldn't believe this. He asked the red Claptrap what the posters meant but the red Claptrap said nothing. They reached the end of the path and stopped at a metal door. The red Claptrap turned around and spoke.

"This is the secret cave of the Hyperion Corporation; they abandoned this when the companies pulled out of the planet. We decided to take it as our own." The red Claptrap activated the door and it slid open revealing a control centre full of machines with blue and green screens, sounds of bleeping and keys pressed quickly with the slow rhythm of a photocopier printing out. A few Claptraps were inside but none of them looked terribly busy. The red Claptrap ushered Claptrap to another door near a large machine with a screen that looked to Claptrap like it had the layout of Jakobs Cove on it. The red Claptrap opened the door and Claptrap followed him inside. The door closed shut and the red Claptrap shoved Claptrap into a clamp-like device in the centre of the room locking him still. Claptrap moved his wheel around quickly trying to break free but he was stuck.

"What are you doing?" Claptrap asked desperately.

"I'm changing your status and identification." Before Claptrap could reply, electricity was shooting through his system and in seconds he was deactivated. The red Claptrap continued typing away at the keyboard and using the touch screen to shift objects around. Claptrap's optic sensor changed from green to red. Now, he was a revolutionary for the Hyperion Corporation. The red Claptrap opened the identification browser and generated Claptrap with a new call sign- _Nova-TP_. The red Claptrap activated another surge of electricity to reactivate the newly reborn Claptrap. Claptrap's optic sensor glowed red with rage and replied to the red Claptrap's call, _do you copy Nova-TP?_

"Affirmative." Nova-TP was ready for revolution.

A few minutes later, Nova-TP and the red Claptrap returned to the control centre and a blue Claptrap stood on the raised piece of flooring at the far end of the room where a giant screen stood behind him.

"My designated name is Alpha-TP and I have received a message from our glorious warlord, Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap." Behind Alpha-TP a message is played on the screen with the INAC talking from a podium."

_Attention all revolutionaries at the Hyperion Secret Cave__. There has been a killing at Jakob's Cove amongst our own wires and gears. A Claptrap has been killed! Send who you can to Jakobs Cove and find the one-human-Claptrap-killing barbarian and cut him down- slowly._

The message stopped and Alpha-TP spoke again. "There, our task has been set and I'm sending R3D-XC to complete our task." The red Claptrap responded to his name and replied to his leader.

"We have a new reborn, he should prove himself. Meet Nova-TP." R3D-XC pushed Nova-TP in front of him and Alpha-TP looked at him, studying the scratches and marks all over the machine.

"This little droid clearly isn't a stranger to the meat-bags lust for torture. What's your story?"

Nova-TP spoke, "I was a loyal servant to T.K Baha in Fyrestone for many years. He showed me no respect but I felt sad when he was killed by bandits. I tried to move away and all I got was abuse everywhere from the Arid Badlands to the Rust Commons. I've had enough." Alpha-TP approved of Nova-TP's anger at the humans and stepped down from the platform. Alpha-TP approached Nova-TP and guided Nova-TP to the New-U station inside the control centre. Alpha-TP spoke to Nova-TP.

"You'll go to Jakob's Cove and find the defunct Claptrap and find out who killed him." Nova-TP was about to speak before Alpha-TP raised a finger to call for silence. "However, Jakob's Cove has been ravaged by zombies that apparently Dr. Ned has conjured up from nowhere." One of the Claptraps then interjected.

"Isn't he Dr. Zed in disguise?"

"No, he is not. Dr. Zed is someone totally different. Dr. Ned is a crazy fellow who has created an epidemic unseen before on this planet. The zombies have a taste for brains and they'll chew through your wires if you let them get close enough." Alpha-TP turned his attention to R3D-XC and told him to fetch a weapon for Nova-TP. R3D-XC swiftly returned with a Dahl revolver with six shots and handed it to Nova-TP. Nova-TP placed it inside one of his panels and looked back at Alpha-TP who activated the New-U station's Fast Travel Network. Nova-TP linked himself up to the New-U station and before he could say anything else he was teleported out of the cave and into a blue haze where he spun around again and again until landing wheel first on the shoreline of Jakob's Cove.


	2. Zombies & Murderers

_**Zombies & Murderers**_

Nova-TP's first impression of Jakobs Cove was fear. On the deck above the water where the New-U station stood there were dozens of luggage items and corpses of the residents of the Cove. Something had happened. That something was brought to Nova-TP's attention when Alpha-TP told him about the outbreak of an illness that reincarnated human beings into mindless flesh-eating maniacs. Nova-TP spun around and looked way out to sea. The night made the entire landscape look like a marshland. Distant lights burned through the mist from the numerous huts standing above the water but the sea looked dead. Nova-TP set his sights on his objective and crossed the wooden bridge onto the mainland of Jakobs Cove.

The first landmark of Jakobs Cove was the windmill right in front of Nova-TP. Jakobs Cove is a town Jakobs Corporation established after the discovery of wood there. They kept a tight operation at the Lumber Yard and profited a fortune. Dr. Ned, the planet-renowned doctor took charge of the company's medical attention there and became curious with experimenting. What exactly Dr. Ned did to cause the infection was none of Nova-TP's concern. Finding the downed Claptrap and bringing the killer to justice was his objective. Nova-TP walked through the windmill which was abandoned. There was a pool of blood in the middle where Nova-TP was moving through. Nova-TP opened another door and Nova-TP was jumped by a swarm of bats launching off from the door and into the bleak sky. Nova-TP regained his composure and headed down the slope which led to the hub of Jakobs Cove. Three Gatling turrets stood at key positions in the hub which would shoot zombies on sight. Nova-TP directed himself to the bounty board where news was fed to the residents of Jakobs Cove. Nova-TP reached the bounty board and saw the sight of a dead Claptrap. Nova-TP rushed over to inspect the defunct Claptrap. The Claptrap was bound in rope and he had been shot dead. Nova-TP noticed that one of his panels has been ripped open which was not from the gunshot. Nova-TP concluded that the Claptrap had been reprogrammed or hacked as the common phrase went. Clearly, the killer had some kind of agenda with the Claptrap, possibly torture Nova-TP thought.

Nova-TP looked again at the bounty board and activated it to check what had been posted. There was nothing posted after the past three days but one post from the Jakobs Corporation. Nova-TP read the post and it instructed a vault hunter who had apparently made an appearance in Jakobs Cove to go to the Mill where Dr. Ned was and kill him. Nova-TP was about to set his tracks to the Mill until he remembered that the bounty boards have small cameras planted on the corners of the boards. Considering how Jakobs Cove has been ravaged by disaster it was likely that the cameras were no longer working but the internal memory inside may have recorded what had killed the Claptrap providing they were working at the time. Nova-TP wheeled his way to the engineering room where the controls for major electrical resources would be. Every town on Pandora had one after all.

Nova-TP scaled a slope and found the engineering room beside a Gatling turret. Nova-TP pushed the door open and peered inside. The room was deserted. There were pages of paper spilled around the room, coffee cups left cold on the tables and some splatters of blood replaced the drab colours of the walls. Happily, the TV screens still worked. Nova-TP inspected the cameras and found the memory units that stopped the day before. With luck, the Claptrap was killed that day or before. Nova-TP checked through the footage and saw the Claptrap standing by the bounty board tied in rope. Nova-TP moved closer to the screen to get a better look of the grainy footage and noticed when the camera panned a little to the left that the Claptrap was talking to a vault hunter. The Claptrap was muttering things about leaving him to be eaten by the skags. That was the last the cameras saw of the little Claptrap.

Nova-TP gathered the information that the vault hunter had taken a trip to Dead Haven. Even though she clearly went back to kill the Claptrap, following her tracks was all Nova-TP could do. Nova-TP left the camera's feedback on and left the engineering room and stopped still. Claptrap looked up ahead of him. Somebody was hanging from one of the windmill blades. It was human and Nova-TP felt the obligation to bring them down and feed them to the zombies. However, Nova-TP was new to Jakobs Cove and this would be a test at gathering information the hard way. Nova-TP zoomed in on his optic sensor and saw the survivor's trousers were soaking in blood. Fresh blood. Claptraps don't bleed blood, they leak oil and he wasn't a vault hunter. It still wasn't proven that the vault hunter killed the Claptrap but you never know. Nova-TP didn't know most importantly so he decided to scale his way back up the slope and return to the windmill. Nova-TP went inside and there was no way to get to the blades. The interior was as empty as it could be apart from the tables and cupboards. Nova-TP shifted a folded wooden table leaning on the wall and found a hole in the wall. There were burn marks around the outline which told Nova-TP that someone had literally burnt they're way through. Nova-TP crawled through and stood on the edge of a sheer drop into the hub of Jakobs Cove. Nova-TP was also standing beneath the windmill blades which seemed to never stop turning.

The survivor seemed to have no idea that a Claptrap unit was standing below him ready to assault him with questions. The survivor's grip was slipping, the rotation of the blades forced him to shift his hands around the blades and hold a tight grip inside the cracks when the blades reached certain angles. He let out a cry of desperation at one point and that was Nova-TP's cue to act. Nova-TP took out his revolver and fired a single round between the survivor's legs when he was hanging nearest the slope that Nova-TP had just walked over to reach the windmill. The survivor dropped from the windmill blade and landed feet first onto the slope. From his weakness he let his weight drag him down and tumble down the slope kicking up dirt from every roll landing on the wooden walkway at the surface of the hub of Jakobs Cove. Nova-TP, pleased with himself returned to the slope by following the edge of the ground he was standing on to jump back to the slope.

The survivor pulled himself up and managed to stand upright after a struggle to get along with gravity. He wiped his face with his hands and created a sight when his hands slid below his eyes as if a shutter door was slowly opening to reveal what lived outside. He saw a Claptrap unit slowly make his way towards him with evil intentions written all over him. The survivor's first instinct was bargaining but Nova-TP dismissed all protests. The survivor then turned to his only option- run. His first steps were clumsy and miscalculated; he sidestepped all over the place. After he gained control he slammed his foot through a broken plank of wood in the walkway and trapped his leg inside the gap. He was trapped and easy pickings for Nova-TP. Nova-TP wheeled over to the survivor. He crisscrossed along the cracks in the walkway very casually, just rubbing salt in the wound that the survivor couldn't do a damn thing about his predicament. Nova-TP stood in front of him at a distance and looked deep into his eyes. There was fear and there was a faint resemblance of hope seen in those eyes.

Nova-TP questioned him on the Claptrap unit and got nothing in response. The survivor kept on muttering about running away from zombies and losing his wife to the horde. Nova-TP couldn't care less about the loss of a love; he needed to know all he could about the Claptrap murder. Eventually, the survivor mentioned the vault hunter when asked by Nova-TP. The vault hunter had gone to Dr. Ned's house after she spoke to the Claptrap but that was all he knew. Nova-TP asked how long ago that was and the survivor replied, _two days ago_. Nova-TP didn't need to investigate this. It was before Claptrap was tied up; Dead Haven seemed to be the more immediate place to check out. What Nova-TP hoped to find he didn't know? He needed to find anything, anything to follow the vault hunter's tracks from yesterday. Nova-TP left the survivor trapped in the walkway and left the Jakobs Cove hub and approached the shoreline. Dr. Ned's Bleeding Heart Infirmary was seen in front of Nova-TP and a pathway to his left. Nova-TP sprinted his way up the slight hill and past a campsite. Hordes of zombies gathered in the small ravine to the left and appeared totally oblivious to Nova-TP's presence nearby. Nova-TP passed through a tunnel created by over-hanging tree branches and exited at the shoreline again. A boat was docked at the shoreline with a line of rope attached to it and stretched out across the bay. Dead Haven was the rock of land in the distance.


	3. DeadTrap Walking

_**Dead-Trap Walking**_

Nova-TP arrived in Dead Haven and jumped ashore. The boat took him beneath a building where all the small boats docked. Nova-TP climbed the stairs and it seemed with each step a droplet of water splashed upon his body from the leaks above. Dead Haven deserved its name. Rust, blood and emptiness were the only things giving the building any character. Nova-TP found a lift which would take him to the surface of the town. When the lift reached the top, nothing could prepare Nova-TP for the sight he was about to see. As far as his optic sensor could see were dead bodies all over the town. Most of them were zombies but a lot of them were innocent people who had not yet been turned. Either they were gunned down in an attempt by the Crimson Lance to halt any further infection or they had been bitten by zombies and hadn't yet turned. Nobody knew the speed of convergence. But, somebody knew and that was Dr. Ned.

Still, Nova-TP had an objective and that was to find out what the vault hunter was doing here. To make a seemingly impossible objective worse was that Nova-TP had no idea where to start. The camera footage that he watched showed the Claptrap telling the vault hunter to find Dr. Ned's secret lab. Nova-TP began managing his way through the corpses and finding his way to the wide open area beside a few apartment buildings. The clearing became a courtyard and Nova-TP noticed dead Crimson Lance soldiers. The Crimson Lance had been called in to eradicate the zombie outbreak in Dead Haven but they were clearly soon outnumbered. Nova-TP continued through the maze of bodies and saw an open doorway leading to the interior of a shipment container. Nova-TP stood in front of it and read the poster stuck to it. It was advertising Dr. Ned's Bleeding Heart Infirmary. Was this the secret lab?

Nova-TP stepped over the corpse in the doorway and descended the staircase and yes, he had found the secret lab. Two bodies were lying motionless on two separate stretchers and the floor was stained with blood. There were disused medical vending machines and medical instruments laid scattered like remnants from one last surgical operation. Nova-TP moved past the two stretchers and ripped the blinds back to reveal a desk and a bookcase stuffed full with medical texts and ECHO devices. The desk had layers of doctor's notes on the surface and Nova-TP took the joyful job of reading through all of them for some clues. Each one was as useless as the other. Some of them were fake antidotes to cure the infection like bladeflower seeds and cooking oil. Dr. Ned had clearly wanted to keep his reputation and make it look like he knew what the cure was. Nova-TP noticed on the wall to his right beside the desk that there was a calendar with each day of the month before was annotated. The annotations detailed the progress Dr. Ned was making with his new antidote. Beside the calendar was a list of names who volunteered for experimentation. Maybe the two bodies in the lab were two of those unfortunate volunteers?

Nova-TP was just about done checking through the notes before he received an ECHO from R3D-XC. Nova-TP activated his ECHO and listened to R3D-XC.

"Nova-TP. Information has just come through which will aid your quest to find the robo-killer! Dead Haven's satellite array has copies of some ECHOs that a vault hunter sent to the Jakobs Corporation. You can thank the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap for the news! Viva La Rebolucion!"

Nova-TP deactivated his ECHO device and abandoned his search of the secret lab and left for the surface. His goal was the communications array which would logically be found in the centre of Dead Haven. He walked through the narrow alleyways of Dead Haven where more bodies piled up. Writing was written on all of the walls telling the residents secret locations for evacuation, how the infection started, who's to blame and past threats of annihilation proven right. Nova-TP continued towards the centre of the town and saw a large garage ahead of him. There was a strange sound. The sound of something being cooked, something close by. Nova-TP took out his revolver and crept closer towards the sound and zoomed in inside the garage through one of the open shutters. There was a light cracking against the concrete wall. A silhouette of a campfire with someone sitting next to it hanging a stick over the fire. Nova-TP was sure this person wasn't one of the undead. Nova-TP continued creeping towards the garage until he got a clear sight of the scene. Indeed, it was a normal human but what was he doing?

_Fancy a bite?_

The voice pierced the dead silence and Nova-TP stood completely still. There was something totally wrong about this. The survivor seemed unafraid of the apocalypse that stood around him and perhaps almost oblivious that the whole world of Jakobs Cove was plunged into hell. Nova-TP dared not talk. The survivor's face looked terribly evil with the shadows of flames dancing on his face. The man's eyes were practically burning red. He looked at the terrified Claptrap and spoke again.

"Do you want a bite?"

He repeated his question again. Nova-TP didn't know what to do. He waited for the survivor to act.

"They say that, the healthy human body doesn't care if it's the end of the world. The mind however will always tell you that you should run like frightened children and never look back. I plan on proving this theory wrong." He continued his maniacal philosophical lecture, "I mean, look at me. I'm sitting by a campfire casually eating some skin from bone like it's a moonlit evening at the Dahl Headland. I'll die happy, not scared."

Nova-TP slowly turned away and took a step forward to leave this madman behind. The survivor took offence to this and cracked his voice out again to paralyse Nova-TP in place.

"You're acting just like Anders and Anatoly from the harbour." The survivor stood up with the bone still in his hand and approached Nova-TP, "Running away like animals scared to face the bigger skag. You're going to leave me, take the last boat home and forget about your old janitor-friend, Magnus. Aren't you?" Nova-TP could sense the violence building inside this man's heart; he was going to strike out of sheer paranoia. Nova-TP quickly stepped back and Magnus threw himself forward to catch Nova-TP. Nova-TP dived to his side and aimed at Magnus' head as he hit the floor. The bullet fired out from the gun, carved a path through the air and punched through the skull of Magnus killing him instantly. Magnus' head bled profusely, blood practically exploding small clouds of red from the open wound and pooling onto the floor. Nova-TP stepped up and fled the scene of the murder and ran as fast as he could somewhere, anywhere where he could recuperate and contemplate what he had just done.


	4. This Will Be Your Last Breath

_**This Will Be Your Last Breath**_

Nova-TP finally stopped running when he found himself in the clearing beside the main entrance to Dead Haven. There was a pathway next to a field of green which now looked somewhere between green and red. Nova-TP had witnessed death on many occasions but never once had he killed another human being. Yes, he was a revolutionary now but the underlying emotions he felt before were still present. He could deal with leaving another human being for dead but actually taking a life, he wasn't used to that. He never had the chance. Now was the time. Chances are that he would have to kill again and he had to stay strong. Why should he have to show remorse to humans when they showed none to him? There were very few, Lilith the vault hunter and Ernest Whitting but that was it. In fact, Lilith was the vault hunter he was following anyway.

Nova-TP looked at the sky from where he was standing and saw a starless night. He remembered what he had read from one of the walls before he met Magnus. One of the messages read, _A dark shadow has covered the sun_. Had the curse brought upon Jakobs Cove by Dr. Ned caused an eternal blackout? Maybe it would be lifted once the infection stops? Nova-TP couldn't worry about such matters when he had been given an updated objective by the INAC. Nova-TP started moving again and returned to the alleyways that formed a labyrinth around the town. The communications array was in the centre of the town where it would naturally be. Nova-TP found a set of metal stairs that led to the array. Nova-TP climbed the stairs and navigated his way across the rooftop to the second rooftop where the control booth stood where the ECHOs would be stored. Inside, it was small yet cosy. Whoever had worked here kept a tight ship on the records and ECHOs were easy to find. However, the booth hadn't been used in sometime apart from the ECHOs uploaded earlier. Nova-TP activated the controls and opened a panel where two separate ECHO devices laid. Nova-TP pushed the panel back in place and programmed the booth to play the two ECHOs in order.

The ECHOs were recorded by Dr. Ned journaling his clinical trials about the zombies. The vault hunter was after concrete evidence about Dr. Ned and his zombie dealings. After the ECHOs played, Nova-TP checked the inbox and found an ECHO from the Jakobs Corporation sent five minutes after these two ECHOs were uploaded. The Jakobs employee said that they have hired the vault hunter to kill Dr. Ned and that a Jakob's representative will be waiting by the bounty board. Nova-TP deactivated the control booth when the ECHO finished playing and thought about what he had just heard. A Jakobs representative at the bounty board? When Nova-TP got there, there was nobody there. The bounty board video cameras didn't record that day either. Maybe it was the survivor Nova-TP had questioned and left behind? Nova-TP abandoned that theory considering the survivor wasn't wearing Jakobs uniform and he was talking about his family being ravaged by the zombie horde. This wasn't going anywhere Nova-TP thought to himself so he decided to go back to the Jakobs Cove hub and start fresh, maybe he missed something?

Nova-TP left the communications array and headed back to the harbour area but this time he directed himself to the rooftop of the dock building where his boat floated below. The ECHO Jakobs had sent mentioned a transport that could teleport the vault hunter back to Jakobs Cove so Nova-TP decided to use it as well. It would be much quicker to use than a boat journey. The waters didn't look friendly; Nova-TP didn't trust them anymore. Nova-TP climbed another set of stairs and stepped inside the transport which was a very small shuttle with a teleportation device inside fired down from space. It was a one-way trip.

Nova-TP spun through the void like he was spinning through the path from a New-U station's Fast Travel Network. Except, the air was blue unlike in the Fast Travel Network it was coloured purple. Nova-TP landed clumsily on the sand of Jakobs Cove where the boat-wire to Dead Haven stretched out to sea. Nova-TP was glad to be back from the claustrophobic nature of Dead Haven but all he did was leave one dead world behind for another. Nova-TP returned through the tunnel of overhanging tree branches and through the open area where zombies ran free. Nova-TP moved past the small campsite when a Defiler zombie caught him in his sights. The Defiler was a thin, tall zombie with a gut full of corrosive bile. The Defiler screeched an awful piercing sound that alerted the horde close by.

Before Nova-TP could even begin to run a swarm of zombies ran up from the slope as if they were storming the gates. Nova-TP knew he couldn't take them all on with his revolver so he ran like hell to the hub where the Gatling turrets could mulch through the horde. Nova-TP ran as fast as his wheel could take him. The horde was closing in and the Defiler was running behind them as if he was herding the horde. Nova-TP passed the gate dividing the coastline and the safe zone of the Jakobs Cove hub and immediately on entry he was dodging a barrage of bullets as they cut through the rotten bodies of the undead. One by one they fell down. Some were mutilated by the gunfire while others were taken down by a single headshot. The Defiler was the only one left and fell back to the open area of the Cove instead of rushing with a blind trust into the hub.

Nova-TP breathed a sigh of relief and turned away from the crimson mess by the gate. He walked along the wooden walkway and saw the survivor he left dead on the ground. It was an awful sight. The survivor's head and torso was melted from his body and all that was left was a half-skeleton, half-human body on the floor. A zombie, probably a Defiler had managed to storm the hub and kill off the only survivor. Nova-TP felt guilty but he knew he had to overcome this. He wanted to fight and avenge all the wrong humankind had done on him over the years.

He returned to the bounty board where a note was stuck to the board. It was written with poor handwriting which Nova-TP recognised immediately as robo-handwriting. It read, _This is from your unknown admirer! Take a trip to Hallow's End and follow the waypoint on an ECHO I left by the medical vending machine and find your reward! _Nova-TP found this highly suspicious but he didn't see why he shouldn't investigate it? It may be a challenge set by the INAC to test Nova-TP's intellect and instincts. So, Nova-TP checked where Hallow's End was on his map and took a safer route there to avoid the zombies. His route took him through a dense ravine where he could hear the moans from the zombies that lurked near. Finally, Nova-TP climbed a steep slope with vines to reach the transition to Hallow's End.


	5. Hell Is Where We've Been

_**Hell Is Where We've Been**_

Nova-TP passed through the transition and entered Hallow's End- a large clearing where trees were cut down by the Jakobs Corporation to salvage the wood. Much of Jakobs Cove's economy was collected here. In conjunction with wood- pumpkins and other vegetables were grown and harvested which profited highly amongst the people of Jakobs Cove. No longer. Nova-TP saw the medical vending machine ahead of him and picked up the ECHO device from the floor. He activated it and imported the waypoint onto his own ECHO so he could follow the waypoint on his map. The waypoint pointed to the extreme south-western area of Hallow's End. Nova-TP set off.

Nova-TP reached the end of the slope-side where to his left was a large swamp crawling with zombies. Nova-TP was unseen. He descended down the slope ahead of him and crossed a small riverside area and made it to another slope heading upwards. There was a building ahead of him, a small building. Probably a storage area or a greenhouse. Nova-TP passed it and remained on track. His waypoint took him to another clearing but this time there were small caves built in the thick overgrowth on the edges of the area. Nova-TP walked through the centre of the clearing feeling like the last man standing in an arena tournament. Easy-pickings for whatever awaited for him in the future. Shadowy figures materialised from the caves. A collection of zombies from each cave began crawling over each other trying to scratch, claw their way for the shards of moonlight that penetrated through the dense woods.

Nova-TP had no option but run. So, he did. He turned around and made a break for it. Yet again, there was another slope, this time it was the steepest he had seen. Height was a good thing against the horde. The horde gave chase, running against each other as if they were fiercely hungry and Nova-TP was the last cookie on the table. They were crashing into each other and tripping over the tangled branches and vines on the ground. Nova-TP made it quickly to the summit of the slope and realised the horde were slowed down by each other and the steepness of the slope. Nova-TP continued running, slower however. A long wide cave guided his path; he was on the right track. The cave was as spooky as a cave on a zombie-infested island should be. Life was lost in this cave.

Nova-TP left the other side of the cave and ran along another heightened area above an even larger clearing knee-deep in water. On the far side of the pond was Dr. Ned's house, a tree house to be exact. Nova-TP wondered how he was coping. How was he coping, knowing that he had caused all of this? Nova-TP came across a small village where he was welcomed by a sign reading, _Welcome to Shady Oaks! __Home For Accidental Amputees. __We'll keep your torso tickin'!_ All Nova-TP saw were zombies crawling around the village with their lower half of their bodies gone. These were known as "torso zombies". Nova-TP took advantage of their radically reduced movement to cross the village and pass through the pumpkin patch.

This is where Nova-TP's waypoint ended. Nova-TP stopped moving and looked around the pumpkin patch and saw a small hut with a little porch by the front door. Nova-TP approached the front porch and saw a wooden leg lying on the ground. Nova-TP had a sudden thought, a thought he hoped would prove wrong. With fear and trepidation, Nova-TP pushed open the door. The door slowly swung open revealing an interior he knew all too well. The fear was twisting inside Nova-TP; he could hear whispered voices inside the hut. Nova-TP walked to the end of the room and turned around to see T.K Baha's undead, reanimated corpse sitting on his favourite chair without his prosthetic leg. Nova-TP rushed back crashing into the bookshelves on the wall. Books tumbled down, Nova-TP felt like he was in an earthquake shattering the present by the past. T.K Baha was not human anymore; somehow his body had found its way to Jakobs Cove and become infected by the plague.

The back door opened the Nova-TP looked at it with the same amount of fear. A wooden Claptrap wheeled inside and greeted Nova-TP. The Claptrap was a Jakobs Corporation owned Claptrap. He had the company's logo carved on his body and he spoke to Nova-TP.

"Congratulations on finding the waypoint. You have done the Jakobs Corporation a great service by eliminating a survivor from the Cove. The Jakobs Corporation wants to reward you with-" The Claptrap cut off his own voice and shook his body a little. He tapped his head a little bit and resumed talking, "That's enough with that crap." His voice had changed, somehow the Claptrap reprogrammed his voice and perhaps his entire personality, "You have been a nuisance right from the start. I was who killed that Dr. Ned's Claptrap. I followed orders just like you. Except, mine we're from genuine leaders unlike your poor excuse for an Interplanetary Ninja Assasin-" Again, the Jakobs Claptrap's voice cut out but this time it didn't want to. The Jakobs Claptrap's optic sensor began flickering between red, green and blue as if it was torn between whom to follow. The Claptrap started yelling, howling in pain. Bolts of electricity started shooting out of his system colliding all around the hut. Nova-TP took this as his chance to escape the hut and abandon Jakobs Cove. He got what he was looking for; he completed his objective- find the Claptrap killer.

Nova-TP sprinted to the end of the pumpkin patch and turned around. He saw a cloud of smoke engulf the trees above from the hut. Whatever had happened to the poor Claptrap, it wasn't a way a droid should die. Nova-TP turned back to Shady Oaks but stopped moving after three or four steps. He heard a rumbling, a rhythmic rumble like a giant's footsteps. Out of the cave there was a large figure. Nova-TP stood frozen, unable to move. The giant had a large pumpkin lodged in his neck and there were holes carved inside to make two eyes and a mouth which glowed orange light. Pumpkinhead rushed at Nova-TP with heavy footsteps with every intention on destroying the terrified droid. Nova-TP was ready to die but when he opened his eyes he was staring in the face of Alpha-TP.


	6. Forget What You Know

_**Forget What You Know**_

"Mad Moxxi!" Nova-TP shook his head and stared blankly at Alpha-TP's face as he repeated himself, "Mad Moxxi!".

"What?"

"Mad Moxxi!" Alpha-TP repeated again as if Nova-TP was supposed to continue the sentence. Nova-TP still said nothing. He stood up and gathered his balance. The effects of the sudden teleportation out of Jakobs Cove were still there. Alpha-TP wheeled to the large TV screen and pointed at it. A still image of Mad Moxxi was on the screen. Her beautiful face with the top hat sitting on the top of her head, the red costume and the make-up were her signatures. Everybody on Pandora knew who she was. Irresistible to men and even women. Alpha-TP looked at Nova-TP and spoke. "She has opened a tournament in the Deep Fathoms, The Underdome." Nova-TP tried to continue listening, "Humans are slaughtered for fun but Mad Moxxi is the target." Nova-TP's attention was grabbed. Mad Moxxi was going to be killed?

Alpha-TP directed Nova-TP to a door with a blue light above it. On the other side there stood a room bathed in blue light. Alpha-TP shut the door behind him and passed Nova-TP. Alpha-TP opened a control panel and activated a screen from the wall opposite the door. The screen unfolded and the static soon cleared showing a presentation about Mad Moxxi. The presentation was a neatly animated series of images flowing from the next. There were animations of hearts bouncing in front of a picture of Mad Moxxi breaking in two. Each one representing one of her husbands. Another animation showed clones of Mad Moxxi falling endlessly passing the broken hearts on the way down. The presentation ended with Mad Moxxi holding two Claptrap puppets in both hands attached to two lengths of string where she dangled the Claptraps over the mouths of skags.

Nova-TP understood what the presentation was getting to. Mad Moxxi is not only a lustful woman who uses and abuses her partners; she also destroys Claptraps for fun. Alpha-TP switched off the screen and gestured Nova-TP to follow him. Out of the door, the control centre seemed busier than it was just a minute ago. Nova-TP wasn't exactly concentrating then; the effects of the Fast Travel Network had only just shaken off, which brought Nova-TP to his series of urgent questions about the events that transpired in Jakobs Cove. Before he could ask them however, Nova-TP was pushed inside another room which resembled a prison cell. It was dark and damp. Steel bars stuck out of the walls and there were security cameras placed in each corner of the cell. Nova-TP was sat down by Alpha-TP and told to remain seated. Alpha-TP didn't answer any of Nova-TP's questions. All they did for the next ten minutes was wait for whatever was to come.

Back in the control centre, the New-U station conjured up another Claptrap robot. The droids in the control centre stopped whatever they were doing and saluted the newly arrived Claptrap. The Claptrap, loved the attention he brought to himself. He wasn't the INAC though. Despite this, he soaked up the fame or respect as much as he could. He was shown to the prison cell by another Claptrap and the high-ranking machine opened the door and closed it behind him. Alpha-TP greeted the Claptrap and presented him with Nova-TP. "Nova-TP, meet Seraph-NV." Seraph-NV locked his optic sensor on Nova-TP's and took in all he could gather from his appearance. Nova-TP was intimidated by Seraph-NV, Seraph-NV had a black body with lines of grey running down. Alpha-TP was yet to tell Nova-TP why Seraph-NV was here.

"Seraph-NV is a _Protector_ for the group started by the INAC, RMI."

"RMI?" Nova-TP replied.

"Yep, _Robo-Murder-Investigation_." Alpha-TP turned to Seraph-NV and gestured that Nova-TP is all his.

"I haven't killed a Claptrap!"

"You unravelled a mystery surrounding one." Seraph-NV spoke for the first time, his voice was deep and it cut out into static now and then. Clearly, his voice system had been damaged prior to this meeting. Nova-TP only just realised that those grey lines on Seraph-NV's body were actually scratches, not part of his design. "All memory of Claptrap killings must be destroyed in the head of the witness."

"Why is it that you still remember then?" Nova-TP asked Alpha-TP desperately.

"We weren't there; the witness must have his memory destroyed."

"Technically, it's not destruction. We remove the first memory of robo-death and replace it with a memory blockage triggered to fight off future memories if there are any of course. It's all for the good of the INAC's rebolutionaries." Seraph-NV pulled out a thin device from one of his panels and held it behind Nova-TP. Nova-TP had no way of getting out so he stayed perfectly still. The device pierced into the metal of Nova-TP's body and poked the memory unit just behind his optic sensor. Nova-TP's optic sensor started fading in and out of red. This was a good sign. Alpha-TP had no worry that Nova-TP would malfunction. Seraph-NV had performed many procedures like this. However, Seraph-NV should have removed the memory by now but there was a problem which he addressed to Alpha-TP.

"This is not the first time he has seen a Claptrap machine murdered."

Alpha-TP's expression and tone became serious, almost worried by this news. "What?"

"He's seen a robot murdered in Krom's canyon, a while ago. He was in and out of consciousness but his memory unit held on to the memory of Krom shooting a medical Claptrap off of a bridge."

"What does this mean?"

"It means he has to have the memory block while he has the most recent memory of death in his head. I can kill the first memory of death, but not the second. He wouldn't survive it." Seraph-NV continued, "If I install the memory block with a present memory of death then there's a chance the two forces could annihilate each other in a moment's notice. The block is designed to catch memories as soon as they arrive, not before. There's a chance he could die right here. What I have to ask is, is he worth it? Is Nova-TP expendable?"

Alpha-TP didn't really think about it, Nova-TP had all the tools to help the rebolution. He must survive. "Save him." A poor choice of words, there was a fifty-fifty chance Nova-TP would die in the cell. Seraph-NV continued as planned. The device pulled out the first memory and Alpha-TP saw the small blue sphere of memory roll into the device and disappear. The device then planted the memory block in Nova-TP's head. Nova-TP's optic sensor began blinking several different colours. Alpha-TP immediately assumed this was the reaction Seraph-NV warned him about. After several seconds of blinking, Nova-TP's optic sensor returned to red, he was fine. Seraph-NV pulled out the device and placed it back inside one of his panels.

"He'll be fine."

Alpha-TP thanked Seraph-NV and added, "Good, now all that's left is to answer his burning questions."


	7. Trust

_**Trust**_

Two hours had passed since Nova-TP underwent surgery to remove a memory and have a memory block fixed inside his head. Nova-TP had awoken in a separate room near the control centre of the Hyperion Secret Cave. His first thought was oil. After repeated demands for something to drink, a Claptrap robot opened his holding cell door and pushed a bowl of oil inside and closed the door. Nova-TP drank as if he hadn't in months. Nova-TP was kept inside an isolation room so he could be monitored. If there were to be any problems involving the memory block post-surgery then they were most likely to happen in the first few days or even a week. Nova-TP's patience was running thin; no-one was giving him any answers. He felt as if the INAC's rebellion was a cover for something even shadier going on and he was in the epicentre of it. He kept these thoughts to himself.

The door eventually opened again but this time, instead of the usual guard outside his cell it was Alpha-TP standing by the door. _This way_. Nova-TP followed Alpha-TP whose attitude seemed deadly serious. Nova-TP couldn't help think that there was more to come with his memory issues. Alpha-TP led Nova-TP through what seemed like an endless narrow corridor following the spine of Pandora. After some time, they arrived at another door which automatically opened and they both had returned to the control centre. The mood inside the room was strange. All of the Claptraps were working hard, not talking and not looking at the new arrivals. Alpha-TP led Nova-TP towards the New-U station and programmed it to Fast Travel to the Underdome. Nova-TP wasn't sure if he should speak or not, Alpha-TP wasn't saying anything. Alpha-TP gestured that Nova-TP should follow him again towards the room where he watched the presentation on Mad Moxxi. Behind closed doors, they spoke.

"We are being watched." Alpha-TP said

"What do you mean?"

"Your memory, it's difficult to explain. The INAC and all of RMI are very cautious about Claptrap machines possessing a memory of Claptrap death. You're current situation is being questioned in the higher ranks amongst the rebolution." Alpha-TP was talking with care and emotion.

"Am I going to be deactivated?" Alpha-TP's body language showed when Nova-TP asked this question. He wasn't sure at all.

"Some of them think you're hacked. A bug planted by the Humans." Alpha-TP continued, "But, I know you're not. You must understand that convincing RMI is damn-near impossible."

Nova-TP hadn't known the Claptraps in the Secret Cave for long but he had trust in Alpha-TP. He took the time to ask some questions regarding Jakobs Cove.

"I deserve some answers." Alpha-TP knew what was coming next, "Why did that Claptrap die like that and why was I taken away?"

"During your rebirth that R3D-XC went through with you we planted a tracking device on you. We all have one. We can watch you from wherever you may be and we can pull you out whenever we can. You were going to die at the hands of that abomination. We saved your live. Now, on the case of the Jakobs Claptrap. The INAC found a way and I don't know how, he overloaded the Jakobs Claptrap's motherboard. He short circuited, very badly so to speak."

Nova-TP was expecting an answer teamed with a guilty confession. Alpha-TP's reasons appeared awfully legitimate.

"He was about to kill you as well. He lured you away, exposing the horror your former master had turned into. If it's any consolation, T.K Baha was killed in the explosion. I mean, _genuinely_ killed." Nova-TP was somewhat glad to hear T.K Baha was free from his terrible fate but he was also sad that he couldn't suffer any longer. "Is there anything else?"

Nova-TP shook his head no and Alpha-TP opened the door back to the control centre. Nova-TP closed it behind him and Alpha-TP asked for an ECHO device from one of the droids. A yellow Claptrap wheeled towards Alpha-TP with an ECHO and quickly wheeled back away from Nova-TP. Alpha-TP turned to Nova-TP and whispered "Ignore that one, he's unbelievably superstitious." Alpha-TP was of course talking about the suspicions that Nova-TP was damaged goods. Nova-TP looked blankly at the yellow robot and listened to Alpha-TP.

"Your next assignment is about Mad Moxxi as I said before. I would have continued the briefing but as you know we were called away." Alpha-TP held up the ECHO device, "This has everything you need, a map of the area, details on Mad Moxxi and some cash inside should you need it. When you arrive, speak to a Claptrap called _V4ULT_. He's in charge of the Underdome Bank. There may be a large human there as well who is Pandora's most famous merchant and a greedy slob. Marcus Kincaid. Take this." Alpha-TP handed Nova-TP the ECHO and they stepped towards the New-U station. "V4ULT will tell you everything. He's one of us."

Nova-TP stored the ECHO device inside his ECHO panel. Alpha-TP activated the New-U station's Fast Travel Network and Nova-TP vanished from Alpha-TP's presence. Alpha-TP walked away from the New-U station and stopped. He examined his ECHO device. He had just received a text ECHO from the INAC.

_You have a new arrival and we have a new rebolutionary! He is with your chum, R3D-XC being reborn. Take him to the Underdome where he'll help out that head-case, Nova-TP. Good hunting!_

This was inappropriately bad timing on the INAC's part. Alpha-TP had just sent off Nova-TP, he was going in blind now. A new Claptrap would arrive and with all this business with RMI and his mind, he'll think it's an assassin sent by RMI to rid the rebolution of his mind.

Alpha-TP approached the large screen behind the raised piece of platform and placed his hands on the podium. He pushed a button and a small type pad rose from inside the podium wood. He wrote a message to V4ULT and sent it. V4ULT was an older model of the Claptrap robots. He couldn't send or receive ECHOs so Alpha-TP had to resort to older methods of communication. The message read- _Another Claptrap is on his way. He is safe; he's one of our agents._ Alpha-TP stepped down from the podium and waved the yellow Claptrap to contact the INAC and project him on the screen behind the podium. A few seconds later, the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap appeared on the screen. Alpha-TP spoke first.

"I've contacted V4ULT and Nova-TP is on his way to the Underdome."

"Excellent. What about our newest rebolutionary?"

"He will be there shortly. R3D-XC has almost completed his inception."

"Let me know how it goes, won't you?"

"I will. Viva Rebolucion!" Alpha-TP signed out and the screen switched off. He turned away and saw R3D-XC walk out of the door with a steel-coloured Claptrap with a red stripe vertically lined down his body. This Claptrap was the most fearsome looking droid Alpha-TP had ever seen before. R3D-XC approached Alpha-TP.

"He's all set for his first mission."

Alpha-TP replied blankly, "His call sign?"

"C4TALY5T-SV"

Alpha-TP couldn't sustain his concern for Nova-TP anymore. "Nova-TP should have been told about this. Why couldn't the INAC tell me sooner?"

"It was unlucky. You had just sent Nova-TP on his way when the INAC contacted you." R3D-XC spoke just like the INAC wanted his rebolutionaries to. Obey orders.

"Let me talk to Nova-TP first. I'll send him an ECHO."


	8. The Big Game

_**The Big Game**_

Nova-TP arrived in the Underdome as quickly as he left the Secret Cave. He was surrounded by multi-coloured lights and sounds of battle in the distance. Nova-TP spun round where he stood getting a better idea of his surroundings. The bank Claptrap, V4ULT was below him, Nova-TP could hear him. Nova-TP stepped towards the balcony and he saw V4ULT pacing around the room and humming to himself. Nova-TP called out to him and waved. V4ULT hopped back in fright and responded with a wave. He told Nova-TP to wait there. V4ULT began to walk his way towards the staircase and join Nova-TP on the first floor. Nova-TP stepped away from the balcony and stood beside the New-U station. He felt a tingle in one of his panels; he had received a new message.

Behind the panel was an ECHO database, Nova-TP inspected the new message and read it. It was from Alpha-TP.

_The INAC has sent another Claptrap rebolutionary for this mission. I would have told you sooner but I received the update after you had left. He is on his way now. His call sign is C4TALY5T-SV, I'm sorry about this. Just stick with the plan that V4ULT tells you._

Nova-TP was angered by this, suspicions gathered and nested inside his head. He immediately thought this was RMI sending a spy on him. Whatever it was, he couldn't dwell on it now- something was about to land in the Underdome. Nova-TP jumped out of harm's way as the New-U station conjured up the black and red Claptrap before Nova-TP. C4TALY5T-SV looked at Nova-TP and greeted him. Nova-TP acknowledged his greet and told him that V4ULT was on his way.

"R3D-XC informed me of everything." C4TALY5T-SV said

"The mission?" Nova-TP asked

"Affirmative."

V4ULT reached the first floor and leaned against the railing. He seemed a little bit out of energy. Nova-TP and C4TALY5T-SV looked at him as if he was a lightweight for not being able to climb the stairs without breaking down. V4ULT brushed off the attention he brought to himself and approached the two Claptraps.

"I got Alpha-TP's message, you are the new arrival?" He pointed at C4TALY5T-SV.

"Correct."

"I'll explain everything." V4ULT revealed a piece of paper with a badly drawn Mad Moxxi standing upon a platform in the Hell-Burbia with a crowd behind her. "We'll be sabotaging the brawl in Hell-Burbia. When I say we, I mean you."

"Sabotage? I thought it was grade-A mass murder?" C4TALY5T-SV said

"No, sabotage- then," V4ULT tore the picture in half and added, "Murder Mad Moxxi."

"How do we do this? She's on a platform all the time. All these pictures tell me that." Nova-TP was referring to the numerous pictures of Mad Moxxi standing on a central platform in each of the three arenas.

"There is an outer edge circling Hell-Burbia. A halo where all the electronics and equipment that fuel the arena are found. I want you to rig the pyro set so it explodes clouds of fire directed at the audience in attendance. They'll panic and we'll have ourselves a riot. In the chaos, Mad Moxxi will flee for her private New-U station at the North gate of the arena. Beat her to it and kill her." Nova-TP challenged the flaws in the plan immediately.

"That means that one of us has to wait at the New-U station for her to arrive. How can we wait when it's private, it'll be guarded?"

V4ULT continued his plan, "The flames will kill the power. The pyro equipment is linked to the electricity so the power will be gone. Mad Moxxi however holds a key to reactivate the power at the New-U station so she can escape as soon as she can. You'll need her key to use the New-U station to return here. If you fail then you'll have to find another way to travel back. Which ultimately means, walking. Very. Long. Distances. Nowhere."

Nova-TP didn't like the risky nature of this operation. C4TALY5T-SV on the other hand was totally indifferent to the parameters surrounding this mission. Nova-TP was curious to what his history was, he was so cold. V4ULT interrupted Nova-TP's thoughts and asked, "Don't you have something for me? Cash?" Nova-TP looked at him to as if to say, _what the fuck are you talking about?_ But, he then remembered the ECHO that Alpha-TP gave him. It held money inside. He needed to purchase something, something useful.

"Oh, right. A shock sticky grenade, make it Maliwan." Nova-TP took out the ECHO and opened it to pick out the money inside. He handed V4ULT a couple hundred from what he had and V4ULT gestured them both to follow him to the Marcus Corp weapon vendor. V4ULT activated the vendor and bought one shock sticky grenade. Two shock sticky grenades fell out of the vendor and into the tray below teamed with Marcus Kincaid's voice in the vendor, _Special offer on grenades only today! Buy one get one free for added splash damage!_

V4ULT gave Nova-TP the grenades and decided to direct them downstairs to the Fast Travel stations. There were three leading to three different arenas: The Gully, The Angelic Ruins and Hell-Burbia. Mad Moxxi was going to oversee the battle in Hell-Burbia. Nova-TP and C4TALY5T-SV stood beside the Hell-Burbia gate and listened to V4ULT.

"Remember, infiltrate the outer edge, find the pyro equipment, rig it and break for it to Moxxi's New-U station."

"Then murder her!" C4TALY5T-SV's voice triggered a static interruption when he spoke. He sounded terribly sinister and frightened V4ULT a little bit.

"Yes, then you kill her. Understand?"

"Understood. Should we turn in to you or back at the Secret Cave?" Nova-TP asked

"Turn in here, we'll conclude everything then. Just one last thing." Nova-TP was about to activate the Fast Travel Network then.

"Make sure you bring back an item, to prove her demise."

"A war trophy?" CATALY5T-SV asked

"Yeah, a war trophy. Were you a Claptrap for the Crimson Lance by any chance?" CATALY5T-SV regained his silence and Nova-TP could feel the tension rising. He activated the Fast Travel Network and disappeared from the Underdome.


	9. The Underdome Riot

_**The Underdome Riot**_

Nova-TP had been waiting beside the New-U station in Hell-Burbia for two minutes. C4TALY5T-SV had still not gone through. Nova-TP didn't trust C4TALY5T-SV one bit and he was terribly suspicious that he was going to hurt V4ULT after the question he had just asked him, _were you a Crimson Lance Claptrap?_ There was a reason why C4TALY5T-SV joined the robolution; there was a reason why all of the Claptraps that joined had joined. Nova-TP had his reason; C4TALY5T-SV certainly had his. Eventually, C4TALY5T-SV came through the portal and he was met with a question from Nova-TP.

"What took you so long?"

"Last minute questions." C4TALY5T-SV replied with the upmost certainty

Nova-TP gestured C4TALY5T-SV to follow him. They had arrived in a storage room inside Hell-Burbia. They could hear the crowd chanting _Mad Moxxi_ and psychotic chants such as, _blood, more blood!_ The crowd were growing restless, Mad Moxxi would soon appear. They couldn't strike until Mad Moxxi had climbed the platform. Outside of the storage room they arrived in a corridor. There were signs pointing both left and right. Nova-TP pointed towards the right side where the sign directing to the arena was pointing. They continued moving towards the arena and the crowd's chanting grew louder. It was a ghost town backstage. Rats scuttled along the floor and droplets of water played a desolate soundtrack. Nova-TP kept on leading but he kept a certain amount of attention on his partner in crime. C4TALY5T-SV seemed far too shady for his liking.

At the end of the corridor they found the entrance to the arena. This wasn't what they wanted. The main entrance wouldn't lead them to the outer edge but C4TALY5T-SV found another door nearby that guarded the maintenance ring. _This_ was it. Nova-TP stepped forward and opened the door and sure enough, they had found it. The door made a terrible screech as it opened and the crowd's emotion exploded through the open doorway. They were in the open air now. Happily, the raw volume of the crowd drowned out the door's sound. The two Claptraps wheeled down the staircase and started walking around the large ring. They were looking for the pyro set. They reached about halfway round when the crowd yelled out _Mad Moxxi_. She had appeared. She walked into the centre of the arena and threw her hands in the air as if she was taking control of the crowd. She was the centrepiece of the Underdome.

She began her speech with bloodthirsty emotion while the two robolutionaries found the pyro set. Nova-TP picked out his shock sticky grenades and settled them beside the pyro set. They had to wait for Mad Moxxi to climb the platform. Mad Moxxi continued her speech and Nova-TP took the time to recap with C4TALY5T-SV.

"When she climbs the platform, I'll detonate the grenades. You find the New-U station and kill Mad Moxxi."

"I'll find it now, I'll cut her, stab her, dismember-" C4TALY5T-SV was interrupted

"Yeah, I got it. Find the portal and wait for her." Nova-TP waved C4TALY5T-SV away from him who seemed insulted by the interruption. Nova-TP watched C4TALY5T-SV run for the New-U station at the other side of the maintenance ring. He decided once the grenades had blown the power out he had better join C4TALY5T-SV just to make sure the key and the war trophy were salvaged.

Mad Moxxi's speech was finished with a massive ovation from the crowd. She turned away to the platform ladder and she climbed it to the very top. She opened her arms towards the crowd as if she was going to embrace every one of them and cried out, _Unleash the hordes!_ Mad Moxxi released the three gates around the arena and three groups of psycho bandits ran out with every intention to murder their way to Mad Moxxi's approval. The crowds were beating a rhythm in excitement and anticipation for the first clash of the psychos. Nova-TP was ready to kill the power, he waited a little longer. The excitement in the air was mystifying, the tension was rising and Nova-TP was just waiting for that first clang of metal, the first break of bone and the first splash of blood. The three groups crashed into each other, buzz-axes swinging, limbs were lopped off and cries were echoing the Deep Fathoms with pain and torture. _First blood goes to Sledge's minions!_

That was it! Nova-TP took the grenades, stuffed them inside the pyro set and set them blow in ten seconds. He sprinted away from the equipment and hid behind a metal box. The sound of a time bomb ticking away was all he could hear. The sound of carnage was blocked out, the riot was about to begin. _3…2…1… _the grenades exploded, shattering the light bulbs around him, the neon lights destroyed on impact and sparks flew from all directions. The intense arena battle was interrupted by the explosion, the wooden beams supporting the platforms rumbled. The flame vents on the wall around the arena spat out uncontrollable bursts of fire setting several groups of the restless crowd in flames. Mad Moxxi was spinning around looking at the terror around her. The crowd were burning alive; the survivors were screaming, knocking into each other and falling off of the crowd stands and landing inside the arena. The psychos were thrown over the edge of their insanity and took out their rage and thirst for blood on everybody they could see. Those who had fallen were torn to pieces by the violent hordes.

Mad Moxxi couldn't go anywhere. The psychotic bandits formed an alliance, every single one of them gathered around the wooden beams of the central platform and began hacking it relentlessly with their buzz-axes. They would bring Mad Moxxi down to their level. She held on to the wooden railings that would have kept her from falling. The platform was rocking, it was about to tumble, Mad Moxxi's escape route was ripped away from her. Three of the four supports beams were hacked away and the platform fell to the sandy ground. Some of the psychos were splattered underneath the platform. Dust clouds rose from the impact and Mad Moxxi was caught in the epicentre of the mist. When the dust cleared she found herself surrounded by the remaining psychos who were slowly closing the space. The crowds were still burning; they were still running, screaming, trying to find a way out of the powerless arena. Mad Moxxi in a last chance effort turned her back on the psychos and made a break for it anywhere she could. One of the psychos leapt forward and grabbed her ankles slamming her face first into the sand. He slammed his buzz-axe into the back of her knee and the surrounding psychos silenced her screams with one stab after another with their buzz-axes.


	10. Sounds of A Failed Assassination

_**Sounds of a Failed Assassination**_

The psychos stood around the ravaged corpse of Mad Moxxi. They were breathing heavily, blood dripping from their hands, their buzz-axes was covered in blood and they marvelled at the sight of someone who looked like they had been torn to pieces by Feral Skags. The crowd had thinned out during the hellacious murder. Those who hadn't caught fire and those who hadn't fallen inside the arena had managed to climb the large outside walls and drop down into the Deep Fathoms. Desperation was the chief emotion at this point. They were so desperate that landing into the Deep Fathoms, a dried out ocean spanning for miles in all directions was a better option than anything else on the table.

Nova-TP lowered himself down from the arena wall. He had witnessed the whole plan evaporate from his grasp. Mad Moxxi was killed by the psychos, the key they needed to reactivate the power was on her person. The whereabouts of C4TALY5T-SV was unknown. If he knew Mad Moxxi was already dead, who knows what he would do. He seemed as maniacal for bloodshed as the psychos were. Nova-TP steeled himself for another look of the arena. He climbed the wall and raised his optic sensor above the wall so he could see the arena. The psychos were gone, hidden from view. Nova-TP could still hear screams but they were much fainter now. He could tell that most of the crowd had escaped over the walls of Hell-Burbia. Nova-TP understood the severity of the situation. As far as he was concerned, C4TALY5T-SV was expendable. He could grab the key and get out alive without him. He could think of an excuse to tell the INAC or whoever would ask.

Nova-TP carefully pulled himself up onto the arena. He was now standing on the ground where countless gladiators had fought and died for the affection of Pandora's most beautiful woman. Nova-TP was walking with the care and compassion that one might if they were visiting the site that was a battlefield. There wasn't a single psycho in sight. Nova-TP could see the smoking carcasses of the crowd members who had caught ablaze from the pyro. The pyro sets were no longer spitting out flames but the power was still out. It wouldn't reactivate unless somebody used Mad Moxxi's key. Mad Moxxi's corpse was in plain view. Nova-TP could hardly believe that the psychos could be that violent. Then, he remembered, they were _psychos_.

Nova-TP collapsed to the blood-stained sand and crawled towards what remained of Mad Moxxi. He couldn't tell from standing where the key was. He had to move the pieces of her corpse and rummage through and pick out the key. It was a sick sight. Nova-TP was glad he was denied the sense of smell. He pulled her leg towards him and found a link of keys and personal mementos bound around a thin metal ring. One of the mementos was a shard of glass with _Mr .Shank _carved into it. This would be proof that Mad Moxxi is dead. Nova-TP took the bloody keys and stashed them inside one his panels. Now, all that was to be done was to leave. Nova-TP walked back the way he came and dropped back down into the maintenance ring. He turned towards the direction C4TALY5T-SV went before the riot began and made his way to the New-U station. Nova-TP was slightly running, he wanted to get there quickly but he didn't want to attract attention with noise. The psychos had disappeared but it was a logical certainty they had split into individuals to hunt down everybody they hadn't killed. Nova-TP heard a scream pierce the dead atmosphere now and then. Confirmation that crowd members who were still around had been spotted, chased and killed.

The maintenance ring was completely empty, nobody was here. Nova-TP found Mad Moxxi's New-U station and didn't wait any longer. He took out the keys, slotted the power key inside the New-U station's controls and reactivated the power. The neon lights shot back into life, the spotlights burned the sky with light and the pyro sets spat fire into the crowd seats pronouncing their revival. The New-U station activated, but the Fast Travel Network wasn't operational. Nova-TP couldn't leave. However, Nova-TP didn't activate the Fast Travel Network, he was frozen in time. There were rapid footsteps behind him, feet stamping sand with every beat. Frail breath underneath the footsteps. It wasn't C4TALY5T-SV. Nova-TP turned his head and saw a psycho standing on the edge of the divide between the arena and the maintenance ring. Nova-TP couldn't move, he was standing with his ticket home in his hands and a maniacal bandit standing a few yards away from him with apocalyptic tendencies in mind.

The robot and the human looked at each other for what felt like an hour, reading the thoughts of the other. Trying to hazard a guess at what they would do next. Nova-TP jammed the key inside the New-U station's controls and turned the key. The psycho leapt forward cutting a path in the air and knocked the droid to the floor. He dived onto Nova-TP's body and began scratching at the craftsmanship that made his body. Nova-TP wriggled like how a fish would desperately try to untangle itself from a fishing line. Nova-TP scurried away from the psycho and leapt back up to the arena floor. Nova-TP sprinted his way to the other side of Hell-Burbia with the psycho chasing after him with his buzz-axe suspended above his head like a charging warrior. Nova-TP dropped down from the arena and landed on the other side of the maintenance ring. The psycho then tripped over a dead gladiator and face-planted onto the floor ending the chase for now. He had to find his way back and escape alive. Nova-TP sprinted along the ring looking for his way back.

C4TALY5T-SV stepped forward from the shadows and collided into Nova-TP. As droids crashed into one another, so did thoughts and confusion. _What the hell was C4TALY5T-SV doing? Why was Nova-TP running without me?_ They both stood up and C4TALY5T-SV pinned Nova-TP immediately against the wall with a buzz-axe to his optic sensor. It became clear to Nova-TP that C4TALY5T-SV had killed a psycho.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"The New-U station, I was trying to find you?" Nova-TP hoped C4TALY5T-SV would swallow his pitiful lie

"No, you were leaving without me. Was it because I didn't get my pound of flesh? Did I fail you?" Static crackled through his voice. Nova-TP knew he had to leave without him. He was a danger to everything. He was insane.

"I don't fucking blame you! If you don't let me go they'll kill us both!" Nova-TP looked to his left and saw the psycho he was running away from spot them. Nova-TP couldn't tell from the amount of blood the psycho was already caked in but his nose was broken, leaking blood down his neck. He flipped his buzz-axe and caught the tip of the blade with his fingertips. He hurled it in their direction. The blade span through the air, droplets of blood flickered in all directions from the blade. C4TALY5T-SV threw Nova-TP away from him and dived out of harm's way. The buzz-axe impaled the wall Nova-TP was held against. The psycho sprang forward with no specific target in mind. Nova-TP forgot about C4TALY5T-SV and ran for his life. He ran around the ring and looked back occasionally, nobody was following.

He found the New-U station and couldn't believe that the keys were still locked inside the controls. He activated the Fast Travel Network. The New-U station fired out a purple beam into the sky which formed a swirling portal circling the Underdome high above. Nova-TP picked off the mementos from the keyset and left the Underdome without C4TALY5T-SV.


	11. Liberation Held Us Prisoner

_**Liberation Held Us Prisoner**_

Questions were jumping from one Claptrap droid to another in the Secret Cave. Since Nova-TP's return from the Underdome, he had become more of a robot that everyone referred to as _twisted metal_. Damaged goods, someone that cannot be trusted. Not only had he managed to keep a memory of death inside his head but he had also left a fellow Claptrap for dead during a mission. There were no written laws in the robolution but the Claptraps inside the Secret Cave didn't like being around Nova-TP. Deception and betrayal were the two words they labelled him with. Tagged with suspicions and inaudible threats, Nova-TP was the outsider within the outcasts.

Out of all of the Claptraps within the robolution, Nova-TP had the worst past. He was linked to a chain of events by sheer bad luck. Leaving one hell-hole only to land feet first inside another. Nova-TP couldn't go back. It was like he was climbing up a staircase. A staircase you would see ascending a pyramid where you could only climb up, not down. The further he climbed the harder it got to keep climbing. Forbidden from falling down, Nova-TP never caught a break. Finally, after leaving Old Haven and the Crimson Lance invasion, Nova-TP had given up until he met R3D-XC.

The holding cell opened and Alpha-TP stepped inside. Nova-TP was glad to see a friendly face for once. Alpha-TP closed the door and stood in front of Nova-TP.

"What happened to C4TALY5T-SV?"

"I didn't betray him." Nova-TP assured Alpha-TP who repeated his question, "I had to run. I left him there."

"His signal has disappeared from out network. We can't bring him back, we assume he is dead." Nova-TP said nothing. He knew what he had to do. Sometimes, plans don't go accordingly and people who shouldn't die, die. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you beforehand about C4TALY5T-SV. The INAC assigned him on the mission right after you had left."

"It doesn't matter." Nova-TP thought about the atmosphere inside the Secret Cave, "Everybody thinks I'm twisted metal."

"Don't worry about them, worry about this." Alpha-TP handed Nova-TP the most dangerous missions any robolutionary had received. It was an ECHO with all the details on a prison breakout at Lockdown Palace. Nova-TP scanned through the text and picked out the words that struck a nerve. _Lockdown Palace_, _Prison_, _Shank_, _Undercover_. Nova-TP looked up from the ECHO at Alpha-TP.

"You've got to be kidding me?"

"No. A Claptrap robot of utmost importance is trapped there. He's been held hostage in the prison for almost a year." Alpha-TP continued, "Mr. Shank took over the prison long before this robolution started. Nomad-N4V was the INAC's lost partner during his services in Fyrestone. Fyrestone as you well know was a battleground for many of Pandora's factions. Sledge always wanted to control the town for domination reasons. Mr. Shank however wanted it for the power the nearby wind turbines owned. It was all about energy. Well, during one of these raids, INAC and Nomad-N4V were taken hostage, dumped in the back of a Runner and driven away. INAC had fallen out during the drive and remained knocked out. Nomad-N4V was left behind and taken to the Sunken Sea where Lockdown Palace is located. Nomad-N4V is still there."

Nova-TP took some time to gather all the information in his head. He was being asked to breakout the INAC's partner, his friend out of a notoriously dangerous prison in the middle of a dried out ocean. Somehow, escape, navigate through the harsh wasteland and get back to the Secret Cave. Nova-TP wanted to reject but, he really didn't have a choice given the circumstances. He nodded to Alpha-TP who gestured for Nova-TP to follow him. They both left the holding cell and passed through the control centre. The Claptrap modules in attendance all stared at Nova-TP. The seriousness of Alpha-TP's body language while he was walking told the Claptraps that Nova-TP was being sentenced to die. Nova-TP was walking like a criminal taking his last steps towards the gallows. He felt like that, he was going to endure the worst that Pandora could give him. They all whispered, _twisted metal_ under their breath. Alpha-TP called for the lift and walked in after Nova-TP. Alpha-TP watched the doors close shutting out the onlookers and pressed another button to raise the lift. They both stood in silence. Nova-TP kept thinking about this mission. How would he get there? How would he survive? How the hell was he going to do this?

The lift reached its destination. Nova-TP never knew there was a lift inside the cave. He never knew there was anything above the control centre. They both walked forwards through the same drab catacombs found below them. There were no posters of revolution or rebellion. No slogans or messages. Just rocked walls of a very old cave dug inside a very old and very natural cliff-side in the Rust Commons East. A door was ahead of them. It looked like a bulkhead one would find in a ship or a submarine. Alpha-TP spun the handle round and opened the heavy door. Nova-TP stepped inside and he looked in awe at the room. It was more of a control centre than the control centre below was. Screens were everywhere, radar signals, computers, numbers calculating the most complicated equations were blinking on the screens large and small scattered around the room. Alpha-TP locked the bulkhead and called out for the Claptrap stationed here. Another door opened at the back of the room. Out of the shadows, Seraph-NV walked out and greeted the two robots.

Alpha-TP spoke for Nova-TP. "Tell him the plan."

Nova-TP didn't like being spoken for but he dared not interrupt. He listened intently to Seraph-NV's plan he had mapped out with the INAC for the mission. Nova-TP's thoughts drifted now and then to how this mission might unfold. Was Alpha-TP being so serious because of the importance of the mission or did he think that Nova-TP was untrustworthy? Nova-TP knew that his allegiance to the robolution could not be questioned. Whether or not he could remember deathly memories without malfunction or leaving robots to die. He had always completed the missions he had been set. He didn't fail, ever.

Nova-TP regained his concentration and listened to Seraph-NV. The plan was completely mapped out. If one thing went wrong, if anything how big or small the problem was. The plan would be ruined. This was more of a mission placed on Nova-TP's lap. This was a test of faith towards the robolution. Could Nova-TP handle the pressure? Did he have the will to remain unbreakable? Lockdown Palace held the most harrowing of tortures for any sentient life form on Pandora. Human or robot, they had a room in Hell for you.

Seraph-NV looked up from table in the middle of the room where all the maps of the prison laid out and looked deep inside Nova-TP's optic sensor, "Are you listening?"


	12. Where the Convicted Men Dwell

_**Where the Convicted Men Dwell**_

Nova-TP was frozen where he stood. Not even the combined body heat of three-hundred people could keep him warm. Temperatures were known to be extraordinarily cold in the Salt Flats but this was too much. Nova-TP regretted taking this mission as soon as he told Alpha-TP he could do it. He saw no physical way of completing it. He would die, cold, hungry and alone in the Salt Flats.

It took a lot of effort to get Nova-TP in this position. Since Pandora had no government, it took a lot of effort for someone to become a criminal when essentially everybody was. The Salt Flats is home to many Crimson Lance fortifications and trespassers are always captured. The Crimson Lance would indefinitely imprison those who disobey their own rules. Nova-TP was told to walk in to the Crimson Enclave as a stranger and be taken away by them. This would be the way to be taken to Lockdown Palace. The plan had worked, Nova-TP was taken hostage and after evaluation and interrogation Nova-TP was sent to The Devil's Foot Stool – the last stop before Lockdown Palace.

The Devil's Foot Stool is the collection point for all prisoners about to go to prison. The transport was a large super carrier suspended on a massive network of wires. The super carrier would slowly travel along the wires high above a vast wasteland where life is non-existent. The wires reached the Sunken Sea where the super carrier will stop at a large portion of rock near Lockdown Palace uprooted in the Sunken Sea. Prisoners would be taken from the super carrier to the gondola system where they would be taken to Lockdown Palace.

Mr. Shank wanted his prison he had overrun to house Pandora's unwanted and run it like a prison without a single rule. The Crimson Lance doesn't care about Lockdown Palace but Mr. Shank made a deal with the Crimson Lance at the Crimson Enclave to keep the prison system alive. Crimson Lance soldiers take care of The Devil's Foot Stool and oversees the entire transport to Lockdown Palace.

_Line up! _Nova-TP lifted his head up from the ground and followed the prisoners ahead of him where they would line up for a headcount. Nova-TP was one of the only Claptrap robots there. There were another two or so but every prisoner was treated the same. They were as equally worthless as the other. All rights stripped from them. They were in a courtyard with four towers on all four walls pointing their machine guns at them. There wasn't anywhere to go anyway but those who ran would be shot. The Crimson Lance lieutenant walked along the lines of three hundred prisoners and looked in all of their eyes. There were six lines of prisoners that filled the courtyard; Nova-TP had never seen anything like it.

Pandora's worst were in attendance. Rapists, thieves, mass murderers, madmen and more. Eventually, the lieutenant reached Nova-TP and looked down at him. Nova-TP felt terrible, he didn't belong here. He shouldn't be here. He should have died in the pumpkin patch in Jakobs Cove. The lieutenant left him and carried on counting. Nova-TP wanted out.

Finally, the Crimson Lance lieutenant finished and gestured for the gates dividing the courtyard to the dock to be opened. All heads turned to their left and they watched the massive wooden gates open to reveal the _Manic Behemoth_. The prison super carrier suspended on the strongest wire network Pandora ever built. A wire that Lockdown Palace prisoners built had become a landmark on the planet. Famous for its strength and durability but also infamous for the countless lives it claimed during its creation. The prisoners were ordered to walk through the gates and wait by the edge of the cliff. All the prisoners were walking slowly. Six hundred feet moving side by side through the gates and onto the cliff. The air was unbearably cold. A cold wind whipped through their skin and bones, prisoners were finding it increasingly difficult to remain standing. Those who did fall were swiftly picked back up by Crimson Lance soldiers who would elbow their way through the crowd of convicts.

Nova-TP was somewhere within the middle of the crowd. They all stopped and marvelled at the sheer size of the super carrier. The _Manic Behemoth_ had made countless journeys back and forth to Lockdown Palace. It wore the scars off many horrific storms the Salt Flats had to offer. Rust was visible on parts of the ship but the commander of the ship never worried. The _Manic Behemoth_ had always survived a voyage. It never failed. The _Manic Behemoth_ was made from wood. The strongest Pandora knew of. There were patches of titanium sheets on parts of the ship where the hull had been torn open by the harsh winds. The _Manic Behemoth_ was a ship that had taken more of a battering than anything seen on Pandora.

The cargo bay opened and the prisoners were herded inside. The guard towers nearest the ship kept their sights on the crowd. The cargo bay was designed to hold five-hundred people at once. During the first two years of its inception, the _Manic Behemoth_ had bunks for every prisoner to sleep on. Thanks to the countless storms, bunks were destroyed as the ship swung from side to side crashing into the walls. Bunks were not replaced and it became a test of who was the strongest to hold on to their beds from strangers who wanted the beds for themselves. Those who were closest to the frontline of the crowd would grab the bunks. They wouldn't wait. Everybody else would have to stand or sit down on the wooden floor.

In a mere five minutes all of the prisoners were huddled together in the cargo bay, ready for the long and possibly lethal voyage ahead. The cargo bay closed shut slamming the awful sound of conviction around the cargo bay. The inside walls were all made from steel. The exterior was wooden but modern improvements interfered with the interior architecture. This was a problem for the prisoners. There was one side of the wall nearest the bridge where the engine room stood behind. The engine would create so much heat that anyone who was next to the wall would be suffering in the heat. It was so cold outside; the prisoners logically thought that they ought to keep warm during the voyage. They didn't they know that they would be baking in the heat. During such travels, prisoners were known to surrender their beds to anyone just to cool down.

Nova-TP looked around him and noticed most of the beds were occupied. However, he saw in one of the corners nearest the cargo bay door there was an empty bunk. He snuck though the crowds around him and clambered up in the patch of darkness and rested against the wall. It only began to sink in just how dangerous this was going to be. He had found a sanctuary, for now. But, for how long?

Nova-TP could do nothing but dwell on the mission. He was tired. Nova-TP turned over and tugged the ragged pillow on his bed and slept in the company of three-hundred prisoners.


	13. This Wasteland Will Be Your Grave

_**This Wasteland Will Be Your Grave**_

The _Manic Behemoth_ had been suspended on the wire network for four hours since its departure from The Devil's Foot Stool. The voyage was far away from over. The super carrier was trundling high above the harsh wasteland where the divide between the extreme cold of the Salt Flats and the Sunken Sea was an hour away. Nova-TP had slept surprisingly well since he acquired himself a bed from the horde of prisoners. He awoke in the cargo bay where the only illumination was from the lanterns hanging on the ceiling of the cargo bay. Nova-TP's emotions turned to fear now he was awake. He was comforted knowing that he was still in the same place, nobody had dragged him away and nobody had a problem with him. Now, he was awake and with hours left before they reached Lockdown Palace. He felt that the worst hadn't come yet; he hadn't had his share of abuse from the prisoners.

The cargo bay only held the prisoners. There wasn't a single guard inside watching them. There was a time when the prisoners would be watched by several guards. Those guards could never tell others of those times because they never made it out alive. Futile revolutions started off when a guard was killed, his weapon taken and it would be two-hundred and ninety-nine prisoners with one prisoner armed with a machine gun striking a coup against the ship's personnel. The results were always the same. The prisoners were gunned down, restrained or gassed by the cargo bay's pipes that filtered lethal nerve gas. During one of the _Manic Behemoth_'s travels from Lockdown Palace a storm tore through the hull and ripped out the piping which killed the prisoners who had only just won back their freedom. The nerve gas system never returned.

Anatoly Brezhnev stood on the deck of the ship with a cigarette. He puffed at it and shifted frequently. Even with his thick winter coat, he was struggling to keep warm. This was his eighth voyage with the _Manic Behemoth_ counting both trips to and from Lockdown Palace. He had been at the centre of many problems surrounding the ship. Terrible storms, prison ship guards falling into psychotic breakdowns and prisoner uprisings. He never intended it to be this way for himself. Working on a frail, battered and bruised prison ship was never his ambition. He found himself stuck here when martial law was declared in Sanctuary. The sheer amount of looters and criminals that crept out of the shadows in the city after Baron Flynt's demise meant that more numbers were needed with overseeing the prison colony. Anatoly was reassigned from an urban peacemaker to a prison guard with immediate effect.

Anatoly leaned his arms on the steel railing of the ship and looked all the way down where the lifeless wasteland stood stretching out in all directions as if it was covering the world. The thought that one day, that wasteland could be his grave was a terrible thing to fathom. He would one day die and no-one would rescue his body and give him a proper funeral. Nobody would notice. The thing that would be noticed was the loss of a prison ship. Human memories forgotten by memories of engineering. Anatoly was approached by another guard. Anatoly was slightly familiar with this guard; he was a much younger guard who had only just begun his first voyage on the _Manic Behemoth_. The young guard greeted Anatoly who replied.

"Lazar." He offered Lazar a cigarette who happily took one. He had his own lighter. Lazar stood next to Anatoly and spoke.

"Terrible, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"This." Lazar pointed at the surface below. The desolate wasteland far below them, "How could one planet's entire population let their home come to this?" Anatoly didn't reply. Lazar asked a question that couldn't be answered. The sheer damage that the people of Pandora wrought on its own planet was documented and blamed on the rapid growth of the criminal population that organised itself across the Borderlands. Sledge, Bonehead, Krom and among others led the way for criminality. There was a space of silence between the two until Lazar spoke again.

"I have a daughter and a wife in T-Bone Junction." Anatoly looked at Lazar and didn't say anything. He let him continue. "They were sent there as part of my program with the Crimson Lance. I can see them after I complete my journey with the _Manic Behemoth_. We have wanted to leave Pandora for years but my contract kept me here. Ironic, isn't it? An officer working to protect the freedom of our planet who's now a prisoner on his planet escorting real prisoners to their prison." Lazar softly laughed under his breath and Anatoly smiled faintly. This story wasn't new to Anatoly. The Crimson Lance had been known to do anything they could to keep all of their officers. Anatoly was all too familiar with their methods of control. They would make soldiers agree to do certain things in exchange for what they wanted. In Lazar's case, if he managed to survive a prison ship, he was granted his ticket out of the army and the rest of his life with his family. Anatoly thought to himself that the Crimson Lance had tricked poor Lazar. He kept it to himself though; he didn't want to dampen Lazar's anticipation.

"I wouldn't believe all the stories you hear about this ship, Lazar."

"What stories?"

"You haven't heard any of the legendary tales of this ship?" Anatoly started to worry a little. He may have accidently scared the hell out of Lazar. He automatically thought that Lazar knew of this ship and the hell it had been through. After all, he was signed to work on it. But, then again the Crimson Lance would have kept those tales a secret just so it made manipulating an eager officer easier.

"No, not that I know of. Why? Is there something I should know?"

"Well, only that there can be some pretty bad stuff here. This ship has survived its fair share of shit storms. In both figures of speech." Lazar was now worried; he thanked Anatoly for his words and walked away back inside the ship. Anatoly kicked himself for worrying the poor guy. Someone would look out for him.

_Make him suffer! Skin is flesh from bone! _Nova-TP curled up on his bunk bed and covered his sound device on both sides of his head with his hands as best he could. In the middle of the cargo bay, a poor prisoner was being tortured by a horde of other prisoners. They kicked him, spat on him, taunted him and whipped him with chains. The abused prisoner could do nothing against them. They carried on and on and they wouldn't stop. The victim never cried out for mercy or tried to run away. He took it, it was useless to hide. The sounds of a violent beating attracted nearby guards who kicked open the door and walked across the catwalk above the prisoners. One of the guards fired a burst from his assault rifle into the ceiling to stop the onslaught.

"Enough!" He shouted down to the prisoners who all looked up at him in response. Nova-TP jumped at the sound of heavy gunfire and sneaked his sight out of the mattress and aimed on the prison guards. Nova-TP saw them all as demonic minions of evil hell-bent on the suffering of the accused. Every last one of them looked as soulless as the last. They stood in a line safe above from the hatred of the prisoners and waited for their leader to speak next.

"There will be no uprising today!" The prison guard's eyes were red with rage. His name was McMillan and he was the chief guard among the prison guards. He had completed many voyages and had defended the ship against too many rebellions to count. "You can kick as much shit out of him all you like. You can rape him, drag him, I don't care. There will not be any shenanigans against this ship, do you hear me?" His words seemed pointless against prisoners who resented every authority figure they knew of. "Save your energy for what's to come when you leave this ship." McMillian was pleased with his speech, he ordered his guards to stay up on the catwalk for ten minutes to watch over the prisoners. McMillian passed the guards on the catwalk and walked through the door out of sight.

The prisoners left their victim alone and returned to their bunks. Those who didn't have a bed stood awkwardly in the company of the prison guards standing above them. The minutes slowly passed by. Driven by fear and the brutality of the prisoners, Lazar took his assault rifle and aimed at a prisoner's heart.


	14. No Help Is Coming

_**No Help Is Coming**_

The bullet punched through the prisoner's heart exploding a cloud of blood onto the prisoners behind him. He slumped to the floor with blood pooling around him. The prison guards stood still, shocked, totally unaware that one of them had just provoked an army of three-hundred strong below them. Lazar's hands were shaking; his assault rifle's barrel was smoking from the gunshot. The prison guards turned to face him, they couldn't utter a single word but they were all thinking, _do you know what you have just done?_

Too late. The prisoners had already begun their revolution against the prison ship. They scrounged up what they could from the floor. Stones, bricks and planks of wood were picked up and thrown at the guards. The guards were disorientated by the barrage of projectiles. Each object was smashing into a cranium or bouncing off of the catwalk. Lazar, sensing that he had better leave jumped over a fallen guard on the catwalk and made a break for the door. The fallen guard grabbed Lazar's ankle slamming him down onto the metal surface. Lazar looked behind him and saw the guard tug at his ankle. _If we go, you go!_ Lazar kicked back the guard's words with repeated stamps directed on his mouth. The guard, bleeding from his gums ripped out his knife and attempted to jam Lazar's leg through the catwalk. Lazar yanked his foot from the guard's grip and dived into the door which didn't budge.

The door was locked? Lazar pulled the handle but the door was sealed tight. Lazar was trapped with all of the guards and the prisoners. The Crimson Lance guards were doing their best holding off the prisoners with their weapons. Some prisoners were shot down but most of the gunfire was pelting all over the place. Lanterns were knocked down from where they hung smashing to the ground. One of the prisoners appointed himself leader and told the prisoners to cut the catwalk down. The catwalk supports could be reached if the prisoners could climb the wall beneath the catwalk. The wall had so many dents in it and pieces of metal stabbed into it that it could be scaled relatively easily. The prisoners ran for the wall and started climbing. The prison guards couldn't see them very well because they were directly below them where light was darkened by the shadow of the catwalk and they were continuously hassled by the onslaught of projectiles.

Lazar kept his back on the door and watched the panic unfold. This was his first voyage to survive? Lazar remembered what Anatoly had said to him earlier, _this ship has survived its fair share of shit storms_. Lazar knew what Anatoly was trying to warn him of now. The guard Lazar had kicked repeatedly in the face was now standing in front of him. Lazar had briefly forgotten all about him. The guard didn't seem concerned that the prisoners were revolting. He wanted to hurt Lazar; he wanted to kill Lazar for potentially screwing up the voyage. He held his knife up in the air and took a step forward towards Lazar. Lazar was convinced he was dead. Moments later the guard dropped from view. Lazar could see the guards further on behind where the attacking guard stood begin to fall. There was a snap of metal followed by another. The catwalk had been cut down from its ascension.

It played out as if it was in slow motion. Lazar felt the disappearance of the surface and the reawakening of gravity. Lazar's feet struggled to find balance. Lazar fell, his hand slipped from the grip of the door handle and landed after the catwalk had crashed onto the floor. Lazar landed on his back on a prisoner's legs. All Lazar heard was the distant sound of clanging steel and disentangled meshed fencing with the immediate sound of shattered bones. The prisoner was dead before Lazar had destroyed his legs.

All of the guards fell with the catwalk. Some of them managed to climb out of the wreckage of metal; others meanwhile had died in the fall. Some of the prisoners were crushed beneath the catwalk but most of them held back away from the collapse. Nova-TP had been hiding beneath his bunk throughout the whole fight. Stunned by fear. Dust had blown in through the cargo bay blinding Nova-TP temporarily from the crash. Nova-TP wasn't going to move, if he was going to die he was staying here. He didn't want to do this mission and he had no problem with not completing it.

Lazar sat up and saw prison guards stumble over the twisted metal. There was so much dust that has exploded from the floor clouding the area that visibility was a handicap on both sides of the battle. Some prisoners managed to salvage the guards' assault rifles and gunfire crept through the dust cloud tearing through the guards who were in firing range. Lazar rolled to his right behind the crash site and lay dead for the time being hoping to fool the prisoners. He was best if he lied down face first so he could hide his face. He was the middle man in this fight. Above him, the catwalk door smashed open. The caved in door swung open hanging on its hinges. A ladder was shuffled down for the guards to escape with. There was so much noise distracting the guards they had trouble realising their escape route. The dust was thinning and prisoners noticed the ladder. Lazar was beneath it but he was of no concern to the prisoners. He was dead in their eyes.

A prisoner leaped onto the ladder and began his ascent. He was quick, almost cat-like. He reached the summit and saw the guard who looked as though he had seen a ghost. As if the Grim Reaper was standing before him with his death warrant in hand and a scythe in the other. Completely caught unguarded and unaware that the prisoners had such an advantage over the _Manic Behemoth_'s personnel. The prisoner grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and took a bite out of the guard's face. With a chunk of flesh inside his mouth, he cried out- _Take the ship!_ He threw the guard away whose eyeball fell into the crater inside his face. The prisoner returned to the ladder and ordered his prison ship comrades to climb up.

Most of the guards inside the cargo hold were dead now. They were outnumbered by three-hundred prisoners but the guards remaining on the ship outgunned them. Then again, would fifty or so guns hold back a relentless army of three-hundred? The prisoner scaled the ladder like ants scuttling outside of their home. A colony of soldiers rising to meet their enemy. Beyond the cargo bay, measures were put into place to stop the uprising. McMillian told the guards to seal the bulkheads that divided the rest of the ship from the cargo hold. If they were locked inside away from the ship's vitals, they were safe. The prisoners were crowding the corridors above. They needed to spread their wings and fast otherwise they were useless. The self-appointed leader who took a bite out of the poor guard's face took charge. _Break open the doors!_

The prisoners set off in three separate directions to advance their assault. By this time, two doors were closed. One was about to close. Due to a recent gust of wind, a solid tumbleweed of large proportions smashed into the side of the ship breaking open one of the bulkheads. The bulkhead's lock was mangled in the impact and it was proving difficult to close properly. There was a group of prison guards struggling to jam the lock in place. They were twisting it, pulling it and hitting it, trying to seal the door. A horde of prisoners skidded around the corner and stopped like vicious animals that had spotted their prey. Driven by excitement and maniacal happiness they sprinted towards the door. The guards noticed and abandoned their efforts briefly. One of them took out his SMG and pushed his arm through the gap where the lock of the door should be. There was a vertical slice of space between the two forces. He opened fire at the prisoners who were quickly cut down to their numbers of below five. The survivors who were behind the frontlines quickly ran back and into cover from the gunfire. While the guards resumed their efforts at closing the door the guard continued suppressing the prisoners.

The two other groups had failed their attempts at breaking the doors. The bulkheads were designed to take damage from C-3 charges. Punches from bruised fists and tattered boots did nothing to the metal doors. Their only hope of advancing was through the broken door.


	15. A Prisoner's Coup

_**A Prisoner's Coup**_

Two of three bulkheads were closed shut. The open bulkhead was protected by a guard's relentless effort to supress the prisoners who continued to rush the guards ending with death every single time. The three bulkhead guards were waiting for the plate of steel so they could weld the door shut. The leader of the prisoners kept sending prisoners out to their death hoping to burn through the prison guard's ammunition. Although, with every prisoner death there would be one less gear in the machine of the rebellion. This plan wasn't going to work.

Lazar slumped over the collapsed mess that was the catwalk. The prisoners were gone. He heard the chattering voices above him. Lazar knew he couldn't go up there and if he was seen he would be killed. Lazar didn't know quite what to do.

The _Manic Behemoth_ was now deep in the atmosphere of the Sunken Sea. A lifeless dead ocean stretching out for miles and miles in all directions. This particular part of the Sunken Sea was named by prison ship guards as the _Deep Epicentre_. This was where the worst of storms met their peak and almost always they would strike here. Lazar was told about this part of the region before the trip. Lazar felt the ship rumble briefly, noticeable quick spasms crawled through the ship. He knew exactly where they were and what was going to happen.

The group of prison guards finally received the lock. Another group of guards handed them the steel rod that would protect them from the gathering hordes. Anatoly Brezhnev was standing far behind the two groups of guards. The corridor led to the deck of the ship. He was standing beside the wall with his assault rifle ready. He stood as calm as he always had been. He was ready for whatever the prisoners could throw at him. He knew just like Lazar that the ship was heading in an inevitable part of their journey. A storm was about to strike and it would throw the ship on its suspension on the wire network. The ship couldn't be flipped a full revolution on its wire but it has been known to be pushed past the ninety-degree point on its suspension.

The ship snuck into the epicentre and the winds picked up. Galloping speed and carrying the full weight of dust clouds, junk and tumbleweeds with them. Like a spaceship heading into an asteroid field, the _Manic Behemoth_ took each blow from the winds and kept on going. The ship rocked from each attack from the storm. The guards stumbled along the deck but they were alright. They still had a job to do. Anatoly began to yell at the guards to seal the door; the storm could break them down and break the door open for good. There were defence measures beyond the bulkhead but they were human measures and weapons. Not engineered measures. This was the last chokehold the guards had left.

The guards were struggling to lock the door. The ship's rocking was halting any effort at all to seal the bulkhead. The prisoners didn't have as much of a problem with the ship's violent movements. They were so crowded in the corridor and the room past the cargo bay that they were supported by each other. The prisoners nearest the bulkhead then seized their moment and charged at the bulkhead. The guard was no longer defending with his SMG; he was helping to seal the door. The guards heard the growing number of feet stampeding their way towards them and that they were too late. The door burst wide open smashing into the heads of the nearby guards. Anatoly watched as a group of prisoners trampled over the fallen guards and continue their way towards him. Some of the prisoners killed the downed guards before they could get back up. Anatoly, without thinking twice opened fire on the attacking prisoners. They fell down riddled with bullets. Anatoly called for help, he heard guards in the distance unseen shout out orders. Anatoly decided he was going to close the door himself. Strangely, the prisoners weren't running out as quickly as he expected them to. A few sprinted out one at a time who was shot down by Anatoly. He assumed that they were testing his defences before they unleash the real and much more threatening waves of attacks.

The ship was shifting even more now. Clouds of dust spilled over onto the deck blinding those who were caught in sight. Anatoly used the wall beside him to keep himself on his feet. He knelt down when he reached the door and picked up the steel plate. He would seal the door himself. He planted the plate on the door and picked up the blowtorch with one free hand. He began welding. He looked through the gap and saw prisoners sprinting towards him. A large group, the real threat to properly begin the siege of the ship. Anatoly didn't quicken the welding; he kept going with the same amount of precision that he started with. The guards remaining on the deck noticed tumbleweeds of massive proportions spinning towards them. _Port side! Port side! _Anatoly looked to his right and saw the tumbleweed travelling with the speed of the storm heading his direction. If anyone was on the deck in this area, they wouldn't survive. Anatoly's thoughts were interrupted by a second prisoner collision against the bulkhead. Anatoly's head snapped back from the impact and he crashed against the low wall where the tumbleweeds were going to strike. The prisoners picked themselves up and gathered their footing. The tumbleweed drew closer; the prisoners stood up and rested their sights on the mass of destruction that was speeding towards them.

The tumbleweed crashed into the port side of the _Manic Behemoth_. The tumbleweeds dropped from the impact crater left on the side of the ship and were carried away by the storm. Anatoly was back flipped from where he was sat against the wall and hurled overboard by his own momentum. Anatoly span through the dust falling deeper into the mist, he felt the dust burning through his skin as if someone was rubbing sandpaper inside his bones. For a second he saw the blinking lights of the ship and then they were gone.

The deck was smashed from the collision. The prisoners who broke free had been killed in the impact, their limbs were left scattered around the deck nearest the bulkhead which had been caved inside the corridor towards the prisoners. All three bulkheads were sealed, the revolution was over.

The self-appointed leader of the prisoners realised that their fate wasn't going to be tested on this ship. They would go to Lockdown Palace. He told his fellow prisoners to return to the cargo hold. On their way down they noticed a stirring Lazar in the far corner next to the catwalk wreckage. They gathered around him and dragged him into the centre of the cargo hold. The inmate leader stepped into the circle and knelt down in front of Lazar.

_Maybe there is another way..._


	16. The Last Stop

_**The Last Stop**_

The _Manic Behemoth_ finally reached Lockdown Palace. The bruised, battered and tired ship had survived the storms and prisoner riots to earn its rest at a land of rock just off Lockdown Palace. The prisoners would depart from the ship and wait for the gondolas to carry them all in groups towards Lockdown Palace.

McMillian dropped from the guard tower onto the deck of the ship and rallied his guards to unlock the bulkheads. They would keep their guns on the prisoners at all times. McMillian had once made the mistake of letting his guard down on this piece of rock and the prisoners attempted to overthrow the guards and take the ship themselves back to the Salt Flats. This was not going to happen again.

The bulkheads were swung open and the guards walked in with their guns raised. Only two of the bulkheads were unlocked, the third was caved in from the storm. One of the guards shouted out to the cargo hold ordering the prisoners to drop their weapons. The guard told the prisoners that the cargo bay door would be lowered and they will be herded outside and under their control.

The leader amongst the prisoners stepped forward with Lazar slumped against him. He guided Lazar's dead weight with him. His feet sliding along the floor, Lazar couldn't stand upright without help. "Missing somebody?"

The guard called for two others to identify the guard the leader was holding. One of the guards identified him as Lazar Makarov. The guard who addressed the prisoners changed his tone and spoke nicely to the prisoner. "Just had him over, there's no need to make this worse for yourself." The prisoners laughed. This guard had the nerve to threaten them with a fate worse than a lifetime spent inside a prison where anything goes and there are no rules.

"This _man_ made our cause possible. He shot one of our own and killed him. In response we brought down your defence and if it wasn't for the storm you all wouldn't have had anywhere to go." The prisoner continued, "Lazar was working with us all this time. Look, he even has a bandit tattoo." The prisoner ripped off the sleeve from Lazar's right arm and revealed a tattoo of a gallows with severed nooses. Proof that Lazar was a bandit from the very start. The guards didn't know how to react. Before they could reply, the cargo bay door was opening. The sound of a massive door lowering crashed all around the cargo hold. Slithers of light invaded the darkened room as the door continued to lower. The pictures of numerous guards came into view as their heads grew necks; their necks grew torsos until they had become full-bodied guards.

There must have been between fifty and one-hundred Crimson Lance waiting beyond the cargo bay for the prisoners. The prisoners who had weapons dropped them on sight. The piece of land in the Sunken Sea was a fortress. A prison assembly complex where all the prisoners would wait for the gondolas to transport them to Lockdown Palace which could be seen from where they were.

_Line up, now!_ The prisoners were ushered out of the cargo hold and within minutes all of them were lined up in rows of prisoners on the large rallying point where the gondola lines stretched out above and beyond them. The prison ship guards had followed the herd of prisoners and they were walking through the lines of them. They were searching for Lazar. Nova-TP was amongst them and he kept his head down. He had done so throughout the entire journey and he wasn't going to change his ways. His thoughts were just stuck on how he was going to get through all of this. He had to find Nomad-N4V and rescue him. How was he going to do that?

One of the guards found Lazar and approached him. Lazar was standing now, barely and he looked at the guard through his bloody eyes. He asked, "Where am I?" The guard wasn't falling for it. He delivered a quick but powerful blow to Lazar's stomach. Lazar dropped down to his knees. Betrayed by gravity, Lazar couldn't keep a vertical base. The guard grabbed Lazar by his neck collar and dragged him away through the crowd of prisoners out of sight. The prisoners yelled out in cheer, mocking Lazar for his predicament.

While Lazar was taken away, Nova-TP's thoughts turned to the prisoner standing a few lines ahead of him towards his left. Something about him seemed familiar as if he had met him before. To any other prisoner, there was nothing unique about him but to Nova-TP, there was something.

The time faded past slowly. It took fifteen minutes for a gondola to travel to Lockdown Palace and back. Nova-TP stepped forward inside the gondola. Twenty-five prisoners followed and the door closed shut behind them. The gondola shifted away from the assembly point and kept a slow speed along the wire network. There were hardly any seats inside the gondola. Just one support beam that a prisoner could hold his hand on to keep them from standing. Nova-TP looked out of the window and saw the two other gondolas sailing along the wires towards the prison. Nova-TP couldn't see the familiar face amongst the faceless prisoners in the distance. It was useless to try.

The gondola reached Lockdown Palace. The massive fortress of suffering stood triumphant over them. Nova-TP had hardly even placed his wheel on the ground before he noticed the terror this place bleeds from its walls. There, pinned against one of the prison walls was a prisoner. An arrow through his neck and through his arms. The walls were cracked; pieces of the walls were still crumbling. The sand was buried with bones and dirt. The guards waiting for the prisoners ordered them out and followed them to a nearby gateway. Beyond the steel gate there was a squared area with faded white lines on the stone floor. The lines appeared to mark a sports area. That luxury was long gone.

The prisoners were lined up and one of the guards stepped in front of the prisoners and addressed them.

"Welcome to Lockdown Palace everyone." He threw his arms in the air when he said this. His tone of voice was like a theme park tour guide's voice. It was cheery, almost mocking. "Under the eyes of the," he took a deep breath, "…wonderful Mr. Shank, you'll be taking the worst smattering of Hell a man can take. Don't worry; you all will get your fair share of misery and more. Whether it's building gondolas for the prisoner exchanges you had just been a part of, repairing the lights when they go out which is more often than you might think or if it's just getting the shit kicked out of you." The guard added, "On some occasions its getting the shit kicked _in _you. You will find a room vacant for you." He walked along the lines of prisoners and mocked all of them.

He finished his introduction by ordering his guards to take them inside Lockdown Palace.


	17. My Closest Friend

_**My Closest Friend**_

Nova-TP sat inside his cell with darkness as his only friend. Since coming to Lockdown Palace all he had done was follow the orders given and nothing else. This involved following the guards to the cellblock and staying inside his cell. That was it. There was no time outside to cool off, no socialising of any kind and no luxuries. Only imprisonment. Nova-TP knew this would not go on for long. There would be a difference in routine and there wouldn't be anything nice.

As Nova-TP was walked through the cellblock, he saw the familiar face walking above him on the catwalk. The cellblock had five floors which could house five-hundred inmates. There was another on the other side of the prison which could house another five-hundred. There were lifts on all of the walls that led down to the pit which is where the inmates would walk free during their spare time inside the cellblock. The cellblocks in Lockdown Palace were called the Northern Pit and the Southern Pit. Nova-TP was taken to the Southern Pit. Nova-TP couldn't get the prisoner out of his head. Who was he? Where had he seen him from and why did he seem so familiar?

Nova-TP's personal silence was broken by the screams of a prisoner far, far below. Nova-TP approached the bars of his cell and looked down past the catwalk where all he saw was darkness with a thin layer of light. The Pit had lanterns on the concrete walls which illuminated the darkness just fine if you were standing there. Not if you were a long way above.

Lazar was dragged in the middle of the Pit by the inmates and left in the circle of angry, angry inmates. Lazar was taken by the Crimson Lance when the _Manic Behemoth_ docked at the prison fortress and left at their mercy. Lazar swore that he was not a bandit and that he started the prison ship revolution accidently. He was scared shitless and it was a total mistake. The Crimson Lance weren't buying it. Lazar was responsible for the deaths of many of the _Manic Behemoth_'s crew and he would pay severely. As for seeing his wife and child, forget it.

The circle around Lazar was closing in as if the air was getting thicker and choking inside his throat. A tight hand of evil wrapped around his neck, blocking all the oxygen. Lazar looked at all of them, rotating where he sat trying to find a friendly face in the crowd. One of them, a prisoner who had blood painted on his face from the gunshot that smashed into the prisoner's chest who Lazar killed on the ship stepped forward.

"Your own clan, your brotherhood as you call them left you behind. Now, you're one of us."

"No! I'm not one of you. I'm innocent, you hear me? I'm fucking innocent!" Lazar almost choked on his own voice when he lashed out at the prisoner. The worst thing was that he knew the prisoner was right. Lazar had a secret that the prisoners on the ship had discovered. A secret Lazar thought he had buried six feet under when all along it was still living on his arm. Immortalized by ink. Lazar tried to stand up but one of the prisoners kicked him back down. That same prisoner knelt down to Lazar's level and grabbed his arm. He looked at the tattoo.

"Did you operate in Headstone Mine?" Lazar shook his head yes. Feeling ashamed, he slid his arm out of the prisoner's grip and placed his hand over the tattoo pretending it wasn't there. The prisoner stood up and spoke again. "Crime and punishment mean nothing on this planet. Especially in these parts. You're either a bandit or you're an enemy. Enemies must be punished and we bandits hate Crimson Lance!" The prisoner booted Lazar directly in the head and knocked him out cold. "I want his body cut up. Cut him good. Lacerate him for turning his back on his friends; slash his skin for betrayal, treason and desertion. I want a puddle of blood for every bandit he turned away from. Clean this shit up!" The prisoner walked away towards one of the lifts. The prisoners around Lazar obeyed and took him to another lift. One of the prisoners followed the other prisoner and asked him a question.

"Suren! What about the hunter on the ship? The guy who came from the Dahl Headlands?"

"Bring him to my cell."

A gruesome smile widened on Suren's face every time Ernest Whitting's legs were bludgeoned by the wrench that the prisoner was holding. Ernest was hanging by his arms held up above his head attached to the bunk's steel railings. Suren's cell was much bigger than any of the cells in the prison. Most of the cells could only fit two inmates or less. Suren's could keep ten prisoners inside or maybe more depending on their size. Suren had a particular interest in Ernest Whitting. He was a hunter; he had killed many creatures on Pandora that were much larger than your ordinary wildlife. Suren's main interest in Ernest was his uncanny knowledge of the Dahl Headlands.

"Every time you ignore me, another bone breaks." Suren said to Ernest with the same sinister voice he always spoke with. Ernest could tell that Suren wanted him to disobey just so he could hear him cry again. He enjoyed listening to him suffer.

"If you came to hear me beg, I'm sorry." Ernest said softly, his voice was barely a whisper. Blood snaked out of his mouth and collected on the floor. His arms were tired, blood wasn't getting through and pins and needles were developing in his fingers. His legs stood unfolded on the floor, his feet were angled awkwardly. He wouldn't be able to stand upright even if he tried.

"That's a shame. For some, maybe. It's the basic instinct in the human mind to deny everything. The truth hurts no matter how trivial or serious. Denial can hurt even more. Tell me, where is One-Eyed Jack's lost weapon crate?"

Ernest closed his eyes to prepare himself for the next strike against his knees. He had been asked again and again. He just didn't know where it was. Truth be told, he did know what the treasure was and how it came to be lost but the location, he didn't know.

Suren's past life was a treasure hunter in Pandora as well as a bandit. After exhausting most of the Trash Coast he moved to the more populated areas such as the Rust Commons and discovered that One-Eyed Jack had lost his last weapon crate after a vault hunter hired by Marcus Kincaid destroyed all but one of his weapon crates. Suren was captured by Crimson Lance soldiers and sent to Lockdown Palace almost one year ago. The thought of the unearthed treasure was constantly on his mind. After one of the inmates had told him of Ernest Whitting's imprisonment earlier, he made it his number one priority to interrogate him and find the truth.

After ten minutes had slowly crawled by, Suren began to get impatient.

"Tell me!"

"I don't know!"

"Tell me!" Suren snatched the wrench from the prisoner and repeatedly attacked Ernest's legs with sickening strikes. He finally threw in the towel and accepted that Ernest didn't know. "Go home." Ernest was released from the bunk's railings and he collapsed on his legs from his own bodyweight. Suren watched Ernest unfold on the floor in front of him. He gestured for the prisoner to unlock the cell door. Suren took a firm grip and dragged Ernest out by his ankles. Ernest was stirring on the floor; he had no energy to fight back. Suren dumped him outside on the catwalk and left him there. He walked over his broken body and told the prisoner to take Ernest back to his cell.

Nova-TP was kept awake throughout the night from the interrogation. Nobody who wasn't dead in the Southern Pit heard the interrogation. Nova-TP heard Suren shout Ernest's name and all of the thoughts in his mind about familiar faces came to light. Ernest Whitting had accidently shot Nova-TP at one point far, far before Nova-TP's inception in the robolution. Ernest saved Nova-TP from a grisly end from the bandits and sent him to New Haven. Ernest Whitting would be a good friend to have inside Lockdown Palace.


	18. Life Is What They Take

_**Life Is What They Take**_

Lazar could hardly stand, let alone carry sandbags on his shoulders to repair the long overdue guard tower in the prison courtyard outside the Southern Pit. Lazar struggled his way back and forth from the guard tower with a sandbag draped over his shoulder. Disallowed a moments rest, he dragged his feet until he was ordered to stop.

Lazar spent the entire night tied to the wall of a prison cell tortured at the hands of the prisoners. Because Lazar had betrayed the bandits in the prisoners' eyes, he had to suffer a torture made by bandits. Most, if not all of the prisoners in Lockdown Palace were bandits captured and convicted. They all had bandit mentalities. The torture Lazar had to go through was one of many that the prisoners had already planned for him. While Lazar was tied up, the prisoners had taken the grappling hooks that suspended from the ceiling of the cell and attached them to the electric cell door. Only a few of the prison cells had cell doors powered by electricity. The cell door throughout the entire night would open and close again and again. The grappling hooks were drawn across Lazar's chest, his arms and his legs. This went on all night. The cell door opened and closed at a speed somewhere between slow and fast. The speed of the blades cutting his skin wouldn't kill him but after an entire night, it may have just might.

Prisoners watched the torture through the night and swapped shifts to clean up his wounds during the breaks when the door was about to open or close again. They cleaned him up to ensure he would survive the night. Lazar's mouth was taped; he couldn't do a damn thing about his state. By the end of it, it was morning and Lazar had a round of morning labour to attend to.

This went on every day for Lazar. He would spend the night caught in a new horrific torture by the prisoners and he would spend the day struggling to survive the torment of prison life. Lazar was convinced he wouldn't survive the next week.

Nova-TP had a much easier time in Lockdown Palace than Lazar. He was a robot and a lot of the time he was ignored by the prisoners. He was sometimes hassled but not for long. Nova-TP tried to find Ernest Whitting every day he could. Ernest always seemed to be somewhere Nova-TP had just been too. Truth be told, Ernest Whitting had the same problem as Lazar. He was constantly pushed around by the prisoners. Even in the shower room. Personal hygiene wasn't common in the Borderlands and it was practically non-existent in Lockdown Palace. Ernest Whitting thought that out of all places in the prison the shower room would be the safest. Not long after he switched the water on the prisoners had found him.

One week and two days since Nova-TP's imprisonment, Nova-TP finally managed to find Ernest Whitting. Ernest was sitting in the mess hall with a plateful of canned Skag meat. Nova-TP didn't hesitate; he moved down the aisle and sat beside Ernest Whitting. Nova-TP didn't know how to start the conversation. He looked around awkwardly before resting his eyes on Ernest's food.

"I remember you." Ernest Whitting looked at Nova-TP and studied his scratched body. He focused on the bullet hole on the left side of Nova-TP's body.

"I do as well. What do you want?"

Nova-TP was stunned by his reaction. There were no questions on why he was locked up, what he did after Ernest sent him to New Haven? Nothing, just total indifference.

"I need your help." Nova-TP continued seeing as Ernest wasn't talking. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm a part of the Claptrap Robolution. I've been sent here to breakout a fellow Claptrap." Ernest Whitting dropped his knife and rested his head on his hand.

"You don't need to whisper. They don't care." Nova-TP tried to reply but he was choked up. Stunned that this man didn't appear to be who he used to be.

"I've been here just over one week. I don't know much about this place other than the other side of the prison is just like this one. I don't know anybody here and I certainly don't care about robot revolution." Ernest kicked back his chair and began to walk away from Nova-TP down the aisle. Nova-TP followed and persisted with his plea.

"We can breakout together, you saved my life. Let me save yours." Ernest stopped by the threshold of the door leading out of the mess hall and turned back to Nova-TP.

"There's nothing left to save." Ernest walked away leaving Nova-TP alone in the mess hall.

Nova-TP practically gave up all hope of breaking Nomad-N4V out of the prison. He didn't know where he was and his only hope had let him down. Nova-TP blindly followed the routine of prison life for the next week. He decided if he was staying here, he was staying to leave. He would observe routine, observe behaviour and observe where the guards would go. Ernest was a failure, he was on his own and so was Nova-TP. Nova-TP sat up from his bed inside his cell and walked around in the darkness. He was waiting for the screams from the cell on the opposite side of the cellblock. Those screams were always Lazar. He would scream to begin with before the prisoners could gag his mouth and silence him. Tonight however, there were no such screams. Nova-TP was sure he could see Lazar being dragged to the cell because there was a flickering of light in the distance from one of the prisoner's lanterns. Nova-TP wondered if this was a change of routine or if Lazar could take no more.

Nova-TP had never seen Nomad-N4V during his time in Lockdown Palace. He had seen a picture of him that Seraph-NV showed him back in the Hyperion Secret Cave but not in person. However, there was one place Nova-TP had never been too, one place he had never searched and that was the Northern Pit. The way to get there was to either sneak your way in or get transferred over there. Nova-TP then realised that Ernest Whitting might be able to help him after all.


	19. Condemned

_**Condemned**_

A sense of strange happiness washed over Nova-TP while he was guided down the long narrow corridor far away from the Southern Pit. There were four guards walking with him. Two flanking him, one behind and one in front leading the way. Nova-TP had managed to get himself transferred out of the Southern Pit and he was now on his way to the Northern Pit where he had not been before. Nova-TP felt stronger, he was terrified of the prison before. Now, after killing another prisoner he felt as if he belonged here. He felt as if he was to be feared and he could terrorise who he wanted to. He felt stronger but he knew he still had an objective to complete. This sense of power would soon disappear and he couldn't crash land. He would escape and bring Nomad-N4V back home.

_**The Day Before**_

Nova-TP left his cell later than anybody in the cellblock. He wanted to wait for mostly everyone to get out of sight so he could inspect the prison cell opposite his own cell. Nova-TP was keen to find out why he didn't hear any screaming last night. He wanted to know if Lazar was either dead or if they had grown bored of him. It wasn't a problem at all either way but he was interested none the less. Nova-TP crossed the catwalk and approached the torture cell that Lazar knew all too well. There were patches of dried blood on the floor, bloody grappling hooks hanging on the ceiling and stains of vomit on the wall beside the bed and on the floor. Nova-TP couldn't work out why Lazar wasn't being tortured last night. Or maybe he was and Nova-TP just didn't hear it. Maybe they gagged Lazar well before they took him to the cell. After evaluating the cell, Nova-TP stepped out of the cell and bumped into Suren.

"I spy with my little eye something beginning with _E_." Suren burned his eyes into Nova-TP's optic sensor. His eyes red with maniacal lunacy. Nova-TP leaned back as if he was trying to stop Suren's eyes reaching his optic sensor.

"ECHO?" Nova-TP knew he was in trouble as soon as Suren spotted him. Nothing would help him now.

"No, not ECHO." Suren breathed in a mouthful of air and exhaled deeply, "Ernest."

"And…?"

"I saw you talking to each other. Not with my own eyes but my friends'. I've not seen anyone have a conversation with him before which makes me angry." Suren started walking towards Nova-TP who was backtracking. "It makes me angry that he is telling you something that I don't know. Something like where the last of One-Eyed-Jack's buried treasure is. I want to know and you will tell me!" Suren dived forwards into Nova-TP who evaded Suren's lunge and landed inside the torture cell. Suren wasn't going to let Nova-TP go. Hell-bent on finding the treasure, he grew paranoid at every moment. "Stop cowering you little runt!" Nova-TP had cornered himself. Trapped in a cage built to torment the physical body to its breaking point. Nova-TP had nowhere to go. Suren slammed the cell door shut. The same cell door that drew the grappling hooks along Lazar's skin and bone.

Ernest Whitting climbed the staircase and walked along the catwalk towards his cell. The colossal maniac's laugh caught his attention. Ernest knew that laugh and knew exactly where it came from. Ernest ran further down the catwalk and stood opposite the torture cell and saw Suren with Nova-TP cornered against the wall with a knife scratching his back. Suren was torturing Nova-TP. Suren was torturing the Claptrap robot that asked to help him escape Lockdown Palace. With a moral obligation and a smattering of heroics, Ernest Whitting executed his rescue mission.

"Stop this!"

Suren froze with the knife raised above his head. Suren turned around and noticed Ernest Whitting standing on the catwalk behind the torture cell looking directly at him. Ernest released his grip on Nova-TP and walked towards the cell door. Nova-TP scurried into the other corner away from Suren and placed his hands on his back. The knife didn't do too much damage but it left a terrible pain on Nova-TP's already damaged body.

"This will stop, once I know where my treasure is!" Suren's laughter stopped. He was deadly serious. Ernest could have sworn he saw a tear fall from Suren's eyes when he spoke. "It won't ever stop until I know." Suren turned back to Nova-TP and began to resume his torture. Ernest leapt forward and crossed another catwalk so he could reach the row of cells where the torture cell was. He grabbed hold of the steel bars and attempted to drag the cell door open. Suren delivered a swift backhand with the handle of his knife against one of Ernest's hands. Ernest let go of the door instantly. If Suren managed to connect another blow like that Ernest's hand would break. Ernest used his other hand but this time he stretched his arm through the gaps in the bars to grab a handful of Suren's hair. Suren tried to hit Ernest but Ernest was now at such an angle that he was safe from Suren's attacks. Ernest gave a strong tug and finally a pull and tore off a generous portion of Suren's long hair.

Blood ran out of Suren's head where a bulk of his hair was. He screamed much like Lazar did when he authorised his first night of torture. Suren stumbled around the room holding the back of his head screaming. Nova-TP opened the cell door and ran out. Ernest walked in and picked up the knife that Suren had dropped onto the floor. Ernest grabbed Suren and stabbed him directly in the gut twice. Suren fell to his knees with his hands by his sides. Blood drooling out of his mouth. He looked into Ernest's eyes and spoke words that were just a whisper. Nova-TP could tell that Ernest had understood them. Ernest slammed the knife into the side of Suren's skull and pushed him to the ground. Ernest had finally killed the architect of misery in the Southern Pit of Lockdown Palace and finally put the pursuit of gold to rest.

The sounds of galloping steel boots filled the cellblock. Prison guards had been called to inspect what was happening and reclaim order in the cellblock. Nova-TP saw the prison guards ascend the staircase and he suddenly thought of an idea. He scuttled into the torture cell and stood over the body of Suren. He grabbed the knife stuck in Suren's head and waited for the guards to show. Ernest knew what Nova-TP was doing and he let him carry on. Nova-TP looked at the corpse as if he killed Suren and waited. The prison guards arrived and they saw what Nova-TP wanted them to see.

Nova-TP had killed Suren.


	20. Peace Won't Be Found

_**Peace Won't Be Found**_

Lockdown Palace was home to the worst that Pandora had to offer. Those who either sought refuge in the cellblocks and came out with nothing or went insane spent their days inside the attic. Despite its size, Lockdown Palace had an attic which used to be a storage room during the more peaceful days of Pandora. Food, spare beds, blankets, medical supplies, weapons and wealth were some of the things the prison kept under wraps in there. The attic now stunk of rotten food and unwashed inmates. One of those inmates was Lazar.

Nova-TP's queries over Lazar's disappearance were never resolved. Lazar had been taken away from the Southern Pit after showing signs of insanity provoked by the relentless torrent of abuse he had withstood. The prison guards took him to the attic where the most dangerous lunatics reside. Lazar had become a shell of his former self. The resident psychos didn't share with Lazar; after all he was an outsider. Nobody had been admitted to the attic for years. These inmates had grown a liking towards each other. They had developed a relationship where they were all equals. Finally, the insane could live together without the full force of judgement being thrown upon them by the outside community. They hadn't approached Lazar violently, they hadn't approached him as an enemy- they hadn't approached him at all.

Lazar had become so desperate for food that he began searching the wooden floor with his skinless hands for bugs. Any scrap of food he could salvage, he would eat. The days crawled by slower and slower. The part of the attic he was left in had no windows. Bolts of light pierced through the holes of the wooden walls dividing him from the main part of the attic which gave him some light. Not enough to depend on. Sometimes Lazar would find the odd bug and the odd piece of food left untouched. Lazar would eventually tear off layers of skin on his arms and rip out clumps of his hair to eat. The end of the week arrived and Lazar was convinced he was blind. He couldn't see a thing. Not the lines in his hands or the light threading through the holes in the wall. Lazar sat and did nothing for hours.

The inmates beyond Lazar had finally broken a barrier between them and Lazar. They opened the door that had been locked and let the light bathe the room with brightness. Lazar covered his eyes with his hands like a survivor of nuclear fallout would if they were to leave the shelter and see sunlight. When Lazar lowered his hands he saw the blurred faces slowly fade into focus. They parted ways and formed a gateway for his arrival. Lazar stumbled to a vertical base and gathered his comfort towards gravity. Lazar stepped forward without any intention but all on instinct. With only three steps of walking for a week, Lazar was lying on the wooden floor with a knife in his back.

Nova-TP's inception inside the Northern Pit was much worse than anticipated. As the large doors slid open revealing the cellblock, Nova-TP witnessed the lawlessness of Lockdown Palace first hand. According to the prison guards, the Northern Pit has no rules, no boundaries and no concept of routine. Prisoners are allowed to roam free around the prison doing whatever they desire. Measures were put into place to disallow prisoners to breach the walls dividing the inside from the outside and uprisings were expected and always stopped. Nova-TP was guided by the same four guards along the caged catwalk above the cellblock. Beneath Nova-TP, shirtless prisoners with tattoos jumped around the cellblock. Leaping from one level to another, some prisoners were fighting, others remained in their cells. Some of those _loners_ as the prisoners called them would hug their knees close to their chest and rock back and forth. A typical sign of madness. The guards had dismissed these typical signs and kept the prisoners exactly where they were. They just didn't care about transferring inmates to the attic anymore, except Lazar.

Cellblock transfers however were not as uncommon as some might think. The Southern Pit was where an inmate would begin their prison life. To be released you had to work hard and play by the rules, the ones that still existed mind. If you were to show consistent signs of misconduct or commit a homicide, you would be transferred to the Northern Pit where you would remain and never be sent back. In the Southern Pit, prisoners had protection, not much but the prison guards would be called in if things were getting out of control. In the Northern Pit, Mr. Shank would watch over the cellblock with the hundreds of cameras and laugh over the next death or injury.

The guards reached the end of the catwalk and opened another door. Inside there was a network of lifts. There were four lifts on each side of the room. The lifts from the door's left side would descend to the cellblock's four floors and the lifts on the right side would reach the upper levels such as the roof or Mr. Shank's quarters. The guards shoved Nova-TP into a lift leading downwards into the cellblock. One of the guards closed the door shut and pressed a button sending the lift into a slow descent. The lift was old and had been disused for a while. The sides of the lift were grinding against the wall screeching a terrible scream. Nova-TP wondered if this was a deliberate feature with the lift so it would frighten the inmates even more by a painfully slow descent. Nova-TP felt the lift jolt to a stop and the lift door opened on its own. Nova-TP saw the catwalk of the second floor cellblock stretch out in front of him. It seemed to go on for miles. As if Nova-TP was breaching the final frontier, he stepped out past the threshold of the lift and walked along the catwalk.

Suddenly, the terror of the Southern Pit had disappeared and Nova-TP's phantom strength had gone away as well. This was Lockdown Palace that he had heard about; this was prison life on Pandora. It was clear that the necessity of survival was paramount above anything else. Nova-TP wasn't issued a cell, he wasn't even sure he was issued this floor of the cellblock as his own.

Nova-TP's questions and uncertainties disappeared when he saw a Claptrap robot in a cell beside him halfway along the catwalk that matched the description of Nomad-N4V.


	21. I Need You

_**I Need You**_

"Nomad?" Nova-TP spoke softly into the darkness. The Claptrap droid was sitting in a pocket full of darkness. He didn't react to the question but Nova-TP knew it was him. Nova-TP stepped inside Nomad-N4V's cell and asked again. This time, Nomad-N4V did react. He looked up from the floor and looked at Nova-TP. He spoke in just a whisper.

"I don't have any wires left. Go away." Nova-TP realised that Nomad-N4V had mistaken him for somebody else. It was clear that Nomad-N4V couldn't tell one Claptrap robot from another. Or maybe it was because of the absence of light? Nomad-N4V's voice was ruined. It rasped with every word as if his voice grinded against itself just to speak. Nova-TP spoke again.

"No, you don't understand. I'm not someone you've met before. I've only just been transferred here from the other side. I'm here to help you." Nomad-N4V then stood up. Nova-TP backed off just in case he was going to attack him. Nomad-N4V noticed the fear and ignored it. He approached Nova-TP who had now fallen back to the catwalk. Nomad-N4V switched on a light and bathed the cell in artificial light. Nomad-N4V looked at Nova-TP's scratched body and gestured him back inside his cell. Nomad-N4V was coloured steel with a dark blue stripe running vertically down his body. There were bullet holes riddled all over his body, scratches and small chunks of metal missing on one of his sides. Nomad-N4V had taken a battering during his time in Lockdown Palace.

Nova-TP walked back inside the cell and Nomad-N4V turned the light off. They both sat down in the cell. Nomad-N4V sat on his bed while Nova-TP sat on a small box.

"I can't keep the light on for long, they'll see me."

"Who'll see you?" Nova-TP asked.

"The inmates, they won't leave me alone." There was a silence after this. They both could hear the clanging of metal objects above them and the echoed howls of the prisoners. Nova-TP quickly decided to cut to the chase.

"Let me tell you why I'm here." Nomad-N4V listened to Nova-TP's every word, "The Claptrap community in the Rust Commons East have gathered together to form a Robolution. They aim to cripple the planet's way of life led by humans. We have saved Claptrap modules, sabotaged human resources and killed key human figures on the planet. However, our leader wants to bring you back from prison and return by his side like you used to in Fyrestone before you were taken away."

Nomad-N4V didn't say anything; he was trying to wrap his head around this. He seemed almost offended that this stranger knew about his old life that was ripped away from him. "How am I useful? No, before you answer that, who is your leader?"

"The INAC." Nova-TP's words sparked nothing in Nomad-N4V's mind.

"The what? What the hell is that?" Nova-TP didn't know how to describe it. He had only seen the INAC briefly on a screen; he wasn't really paying attention to it.

"He's who you were with in Fyrestone. You both used to live together in that town. Your partner is the INAC."

Nomad-N4V drifted away for a moment. Nova-TP could tell that he remembered. Nomad-N4V looked at the wall behind Nova-TP and said to himself very softly, _Avalon-TP…_

"Is that his real name?" Nova-TP asked.

Nomad-N4V left his dream world and replied to Nova-TP.

"Yes, that's his designated name. But, I don't understand why he wants me."

"He didn't say, I was told by my superiors that I have to come here and break you out." Nomad-N4V laughed at this comment.

"I lonely Claptrap robot, to go to Lockdown Palace and breakout another Claptrap robot on the off-chance that he's still alive? Are you insane?"

"I had no choice. Complications rose after _some _of my actions during previous missions. No offense, I didn't want to come here."

"I bet you didn't. What complications?" Nomad-N4V sensed the delicate nature of his question. Nova-TP's body language gave his away his position on this. "You may as well tell me seeing as we're going to be spending a lot more time together in the future if you're serious about us escaping." Nova-TP took a deep breath and began to tell Nomad-N4V about the events in Jakobs Cove and the Underdome riot.

"…After that I was able to keep a memory of death in my head and one removed. I guess after that they thought I was untrustworthy. Another group inside the robolution called RMI were watching me under the suspicion that I was a spy planted by the humans. After that, I went to the Underdome with another robolutionary called C4TALY5T-SV and the plan didn't go right. After I resolved it, I had to leave him behind to save myself. I don't know what happened to him."

Nomad-N4V nodded his head showing that he understood what Nova-TP had said. Nomad-N4V added his own knowledge on the abandoned Claptrap. "I can help you answer that." Nova-TP looked at Nomad-N4V like someone who was verging on forgiveness for a terrible sin. "He's here."

Nova-TP couldn't fathom what he had just heard. So many questions had presented themselves.

"What, here as in this cellblock?"

"Yes. That's who I mistook you for. He's been terrorising me for my spare parts; he's one of the worst prisoners here."

"How did he get here? How did he escape the Underdome?"

"You're better off asking him that. I can't help you in that respect." Nova-TP's plan began to melt in front of him. There was no doubt in his mind that C4TALY5T-SV wanted to kill him for leaving him in the riot. Before he left, C4TALY5T-SV tried to kill him. If there was any hope of escaping, C4TALY5T-SV had to die. Fortunately for Nova-TP, C4TALY5T-SV had no idea that he was here. He had the element of surprise on his side and he already had an ally. Nomad-N4V said to Nova-TP that C4TALY5T-SV's cell was on the top floor of the cellblock. He should visit him tomorrow and kill him.

"No, we can't wait. We have to leave now!"

"What's the hurry? Why rush when we have time?" Nomad-N4V asked Nova-TP who was looking upwards from where he sat in the cell to the catwalk above.

"Because he's seen me."


	22. And Your Worst Enemy Will Destroy You

…_**And Your Worst Enemy Will Destroy You**_

Nova-TP and Nomad-N4V's planned escape crashed in front of them. They had tried to run for the lift leading upwards from the cellblock. The prisoners were waiting for them with chains, lead pipes and knives outside the lift. As soon as Nova-TP saw the prisoners standing there, he knew they were under orders from C4TALY5T-SV. The former robolutionary had used the enemy has his ally. The two robots were taken to a dreamland of blackness until they came around far beyond where they were.

Nova-TP woke up with the sun blinding his optic sensor. Nova-TP was tied to a wooden structure no taller than an average human. His body was facing a forty-five degree angle where his head was facing downwards towards the ground. A mirror was placed below him so the sun's rays would reflect off and blind him. Nova-TP had no idea where he was which led to the confusion. _How is the sun burning me when I'm inside? _Nova-TP managed to barely see some people in front of him. Who they were he couldn't tell. One of them stepped in front of the sun and shadowed over Nova-TP. Nova-TP could see a lot clearer now and saw a group of inmates who had formed a half-circle around him. In the middle of the semi-circle stood C4TALY5T-SV who gestured the inmate back in line. He was on the roof. The burning sun returned and Nova-TP was blinded again. C4TALY5T-SV moved closer to Nova-TP and spoke to him.

"I remember you." C4TALY5T-SV placed his hand on the wooden structure and spoke again, "We had to gag him to stop the screaming." C4TALY5T-SV pointed to Nomad-N4V who was placed beside Nova-TP trapped in another wooden contraption with a mirror below him. The mirror had been placed at such an angle that the threads of light were burning his already broken voice sensor. Nova-TP could hear Nomad-N4V's muffled screams through the rag that was tied around his head. Nova-TP however could speak.

"I'm sorry about leaving you, it was necessary for the mission's completion."

C4TALY5T-SV delivered a harsh punch against the side of Nova-TP's head in response. "Fuck your apologies!" C4TALY5T-SV waved a prisoner over to him. "I found reason beyond everything your robolution could ever conjure up." He pointed to the blowtorch behind Nova-TP and instructed the prisoner to torture Nova-TP while he spoke to him. The prisoner walked behind Nova-TP and wore a protective mask while assembling the blowtorch. He flicked it on and began searing one of the panels on Nova-TP's back. C4TALY5T-SV waited a moment before he spoke again so he could concentrate on the journey that Nova-TP's terror would go. How loud would he scream? How long before he begged for him to make it stop?

"In prison I discovered that I can do great things." C4TALY5T-SV stopped talking for again so he could listen to Nova-TP's crying. "I had a chat with Mr. Shank. After much talking it came clear that he was still hungry for domination and he still wants to own the planet. Sadly, he has become stricken with grief and he has used it as motivation. Somebody killed his ex-wife. Now, I wonder who that could have been."

"You… were involved in… in it too." Nova-TP struggled to gasp every last word. The prisoner kept on burning.

"Of course, I kept that quiet. Only two people made it out alive from that riot- you and I."

"You turned…away from your own kind… because of one mistake?" Nova-TP asked.

"The operation to kill the robolution is already in motion. I've told Mr. Shank where the Secret Cave is and he'll launch his assault shortly. I also told him that they organised the killing of Mad Moxxi. I asked that you were to stay with me." C4TALY5T-SV ordered the prisoner to stop burning Nova-TP's back and step back in line. C4TALY5T-SV ripped out a knife from one of his panels and cut Nova-TP down from the trap. "You have no idea what I had to do to survive on my own after you left me, but you will." Once C4TALY5T-SV spoke to Nova-TP, he clicked his fingers and the semi-circle of prisoners rushed Nova-TP and picked him up. They shuffled to the edge of the roof and with the strength of twelve prisoners they launched Nova-TP far away from the roof of the prison.

Nova-TP circled through the dust, his optic sensor blinded by the haze. Nova-TP spun and spun until he crashed onto the dried ocean floor tumbling for a few seconds until he came to a halt on his back. The burning sand seared at his burn marks on his back but Nova-TP didn't move. He didn't flinch or spasm. He just lied there motionless as the wild wind blew past him without a care in the world.

C4TALY5T-SV turned his attention to Nomad-N4V. A Claptrap robot he had bullied for the time he had served in Lockdown Palace. His spare parts, the parts that built him were what C4TALY5T-SV wanted. Now, he could disentangle his wirings and use them for himself. The prisoners walked back to form a semi-circle exactly how they had before. Before they could form the line they witnessed C4TALY5T-SV shatter into a thousand pieces as the roof of the prison exploded from inside triggering a volcanic eruption of concrete high in the sky.

Nova-TP opened his optic sensor and dragged himself to a nearby boulder. The haze thinned out and the terrible fortress of Lockdown Palace came into view. Nova-TP saw the smoke billow into the sky, the roof of the Northern Pit was no longer there, the steeple of the prison was falling into the walls of the Southern Pit and fire breathed out of the walls as if a dragon had awoken from inside. Nova-TP couldn't make sense of it, he just watched. He just watched his mission crumble before him and swallowed up by the dust clouds. Nomad-N4V was still on the roof when the explosion triggered. Nova-TP had failed for the first time and he would die for it by the Claptrap robot that he had left for dead weeks before.

Nova-TP was disinterested in how the explosion was caused. Nova-TP didn't care that he had no reason anymore to carry on living. Nova-TP didn't care that he was alone in the wasteland with no hope in hell of travelling somewhere safe in time to stay alive. Nova-TP was done.

Nova-TP managed to walk a few steps until he dragged himself down to his front. He rolled over onto his back and raised a hand to block the sun. _If I close my eyes, does the world disappear?_ Nova-TP closed his optic sensor and dropped his arm onto the sand. He let the burning sun feast upon his dead weight. _Let the sun melt the metal my body is built from._

The soundtrack to a distant crumbling fortress was broken by the words of a loyal friend somewhere far away.


	23. Playing God

_**Playing God**_

Nova-TP recognised the area immediately. The Dahl Headlands. Nova-TP could recognise the surroundings but he couldn't recognise the situation. He was being dragged from the open sands to a nearby building next to a race course known as _Ludicrous Speedway_. Nova-TP couldn't tell who was pulling him away or how he managed to end up here. He was ready to die in the Parched Fathoms; he didn't want it this way. The door slammed shut cutting off a thick layer of light. The shutters on the windows sliced the lines of light so the room's floor looked like a grid. Nova-TP rubbed his optic sensor and looked around the room. It may have been dark but Nova-TP could see a hole in the floor which seemed to resemble a Scythid burrow. There were silhouettes of Claptrap robots in the room around him; Nova-TP had a bad feeling about them.

A voice cracked the silence and the shadows of the Claptraps began to move. A doorway opened near Nova-TP letting the sunlight in. The dusk soaked into the body of Nova-TP as he stared through the void. Nova-TP stood up and walked beside the shadowed Claptraps who had formed a line beside the open doorway as if they were druids leading the way to the Promised Land. Nova-TP stepped past the threshold of the door and the sunlight disappeared. Nova-TP spun round and looked at the backdoor that he had just walked through. The sunlight returned behind the door and the Claptraps standing in a line just like before. The room he was in had flipped over once he had moved through. It was as if somebody was turning the tables and playing with his mind. He walked through the doorway again and the same thing happened. He stepped through again but this time the environment didn't flip. Nova-TP stood underneath the sunset scene and looked behind him. The Claptraps were standing in front of the door each holding a part of T.K Baha's body. His feet were just bones, his legs were muscle, his torso was torn up and bloodied and his head was incomplete. A piece of his skull caved in, his eyeball only just staying in place. Nova-TP looked at the faceless Claptraps and lowered his sight on T.K Baha's head.

_Your mind is mine, you're losing everything but, did you have anything?_

Nova-TP had never felt more afraid in his whole life once he saw T.K speak to him as a half-ghost-half-man. Nova-TP turned away and ran into the wall which swallowed into itself forming a tunnel. He carried on sprinting down the endless blacked out tunnel until he felt the ground vanish and free fall to an icy lake below. Nova-TP splashed into what felt like a million razor-sharp blades. Nova-TP struggled to the surface of the lake and gasped for air. White lights blinded the lake and Nova-TP saw that he was surrounded by zombies from Jakobs Cove. Nova-TP watched the horde approach the lake. Knee-deep in the freezing depths they walked towards Nova-TP with every intention of bringing him to their world. Nova-TP closed his eyes and shivered until that fateful moment when the rotten corpses touched his body.

Nova-TP could hear whispers in the air; Nova-TP opened his optic sensor and looked at the zombie who had stopped within arm's length of him. All of them were calling his name. Their human sides were returning, the red in their eyes were dripping into the lake and their torn clothes were melting into the gaps to create newly formed clothes. They all chanted like a choir,_ wake up_. They repeated and they didn't stop. Nova-TP didn't understand, he couldn't understand and he wouldn't. Not until he felt the touch of Alpha-TP's hand on his face did he understand.

Nova-TP woke up on a surgical bed with Alpha-TP standing by his bedside. Nova-TP flicked his sight to the other side of his bed and he saw Seraph-NV standing there gathering tools on the tables next to him. Nova-TP's first response was erratic struggle. He tried to break free from the ropes holding him down but Alpha-TP held him down fast. Nova-TP stopped struggling and directed his demands towards Alpha-TP.

"What the fuck is this?"

"You're hallucinating."

"What? How…? Where am I?"

"The Secret Cave. You're inside a surgery wing. The memory block we implanted is starting to rupture." Nova-TP was about to interrupt but, Alpha-TP continued talking, "Your mind told itself that Nomad-N4V died on the rooftop of Lockdown Palace. You didn't see it but you knew about it. You also knew that C4TALY5T-SV died on the roof as well. Your mind was already on the brink of breaking when we implanted the memory block. We're trying to fix it." Nova-TP switched his optic sensor all around the room. He didn't feel right, he was panicking, paranoid and scared to death about what they were about to do to him.

"You can't stay here, Mr. Shank knows where we are and he's going to attack."

"We know everything, don't worry." Alpha-TP patted Nova-TP on his body and turned away. He pulled open a metal drawer from the cabinet and picked out a syringe. "I'll put you out." Nova-TP tried struggling again but he was soon powerless to move. Alpha-TP watched Seraph-NV assemble the tools he would use. Seraph-NV has already told Alpha-TP what he would do. He had told Alpha-TP that his orders came from the INAC. They cannot be overruled or ignored. There must not be any errors no matter how big or small.

Alpha-TP felt terrible about knowing the ins and outs of the prison operation. He and Seraph-NV briefed Nova-TP about the mission but they had deliberately missed out important factors that would have been of paramount knowledge to Nova-TP. It was true, Nova-TP's suspicions of RMI and the INAC after he had his memory implant. They didn't trust him, how could they? Claptrap robots shouldn't have such memories of corruption. They shouldn't experience them and they should never keep them or be _able _to keep them. The entire prison operation was both a test and a genuine objective for the robolution but they decided that Nova-TP was never to know.

Nova-TP had to die on the table.


	24. Last Candle Burned

_**Last Candle Burned**_

Alpha-TP had been watching Nova-TP sleep for half an hour. Seraph-NV had assembled all of the tools and had everything in place for Nova-TP's demise. Seraph-NV was originally going to kill Nova-TP but orders had changed. The INAC had contacted him and told him that he has nothing to prove. His allegiance is final and sound. Alpha-TP however was close to Nova-TP. Almost as close as two friends. As far as the INAC was concerned, you weren't friends in the robolution, you were comrades. You were slaves amongst each other by the humans freed by the Claptrap immortal. Friendship ruins everything. If one of them becomes traitorous, has their own ideals and plans and the other is told to rid them, they won't. They'll become tangled in their own judgements and they'll have to decide where their trust lays.

This was a test for Alpha-TP. Alpha-TP had to choose, friendship or cause? Seraph-NV has been away for half an hour, he wouldn't be gone forever. If he returned and Nova-TP was still alive then they would both die. Alpha-TP felt sick. He always had Nova-TP's back and he didn't want to hide anything from him. He had his back when he sent him off to the Underdome and the new arrival; C4TALY5T-SV entered the fray. Alpha-TP betrayed him when he and Seraph-NV briefed him on the prison assignment. Plenty of important tips were kept hidden behind closed doors. Facts such as the two Claptrap droids Nova-TP saw at The Devil's Footstool. Those two Claptrap droids were agents planted there by the INAC who would later infiltrate the Northern Pit and become part of the crew of inmates that C4TALY5T-SV took control of.

Alpha-TP had been speaking to the sleeping Nova-TP for the last half hour, confessing the facts that he didn't tell him. Even though Nova-TP couldn't hear him, his brain was still working. Even in sleep, the body is not shutdown. The mind is controlling the vitals of any sentient life form and in Nova-TP's case; his mind was keeping the words that Alpha-TP was saying to him and storing them. Alpha-TP explained the explosion, Nomad-N4V and the teleportation from the Parched Fathoms. He explained everything as if he was hoping for some form of redemption. A hand of God pressing on his shoulder telling him his sins have been absolved. Sadly, there was nothing to hint that was going to happen. Still, he continued.

"We sent two Claptrap agents the same time you went, _Ion-11V_ and _SP4RK-TP_.They infiltrated a bandit group that C4TALY5T-SV had taken control of. His signal disappeared when he was roaming the Deep Fathoms after you left him, we didn't know where he was. The two Claptrap agents managed to manipulate the prisoners to steal explosives from the guards and plant them at key points in the prison. They worked faster than we thought and when it was time, they detonated. They also managed to find Nomad-N4V; their objective was to implant a tracking device on him just like one that we all have. The prison walls had defences so we couldn't track any of you inside. Once you and Nomad-N4V were taken to the roof, we spotted you. Because of the cloud and the amount of dust floating about it took a while before we had a clear shot. An open window formed just before the explosion. We got Nomad-N4V out but you were thrown off the roof. But, we got you out. The two Claptrap agents died in the explosion. That was part of the deal." Alpha-TP felt terrible that he was telling this now when he was contemplating on whether to kill Nova-TP or not.

Alpha-TP stood up and walked around Nova-TP's bed. He shone is eyes on the tools that were laid out for him to use. Alpha-TP couldn't understand the unneeded brutality that was on offer for him. Can't a single bullet do? Can't one stab of a knife end his life? Why can't they just rip out his vital wiring lines while he's asleep? No, the INAC wanted a mess. The INAC wanted the surgical room to look like a war-torn battlefield. A sign for the robolutionaries to concentrate on and remember that if they don't cooperate with the cause, they'll end up like this. The INAC took no prisoners with his ideals, it was a dictatorship. Fight for the cause.

It was that moment when Alpha-TP decided on what to do. He took a razor-sharp pair of scissors and returned beside Nova-TP. He didn't hesitate for long; he hung his hand above Nova-TP's body and cut the straps holding him down. One strap gone, two left. He cut the strap along his midsection and finally released the last strap along his wheel. With this act alone, Alpha-TP would be killed.

Alpha-TP dropped the scissors and jumped towards the door. He opened the latch near the top of the door and looked outside. There were two Claptrap robots sitting by the computer terminals unaware of the defiance in the room close to them. They were probably staging the next act of rebellion. Alpha-TP closed the latch and took a syringe from the table of tools. He stuck it in the thin tube that led from the nest of wires attached to the life support terminals all the way to Nova-TP. Alpha-TP extracted the sedative from Nova-TP and waited for his great awakening.

The computer terminals' beeping stopped; the room became a home to an ugly deadening silence. Nova-TP stirred, his optic sensor lit up with a red light and Alpha-TP felt relieved which didn't last long. He was going to die. Nova-TP looked at Alpha-TP still half asleep. Alpha-TP explained.

"You can thank me later." Alpha-TP opened up the metal cabinet and pulled out a pistol commonly used for medical examination. He took a handful of shells from one of his panels and loaded them into the pistol and gave it to Nova-TP. Nova-TP looked at the blood-stained pistol and looked back up at Alpha-TP.

"You're letting me go?"

"Yes, I confessed when you were sleeping. Your brainwaves picked up the information; you'll remember it very soon. Nomad-N4V is alive and he is in danger. The INAC doesn't need him for his robolution; he doesn't need you or me. It's all a trick. You can save yourself."

"What…? So, he has been using me the whole time?"

"Not the whole time, he soon realised you had the best chance of breaking Nomad-N4V out of Lockdown Palace. He wants him back so he can get his answers. Nomad-N4V holds no importance to the robolution; he holds personal answers to the INAC's personal questions. Right now, Nomad-N4V is inside a holding cell just like the one you were kept inside when we implanted your memory block. The INAC is on his way to torment Nomad-N4V. You can break him out along with yourself."

Nova-TP understood it all now, his fears and suspicions were right. There was more to it than a simple revolution against humankind. There was a deeper personal layering of meaning that he hadn't found until now. But, why should he care about Nomad-N4V or the robolution anymore? He was free, almost.

"Why shouldn't I just leave by myself? In fact, why am I talking to you now, I'm done and I'm leaving." Nova-TP approached the door and placed a hand on the handle. Alpha-TP lunged forward trapping Nova-TP's hand in place with a lead pipe he snatched off the table of tools.

"You won't get far as long as the INAC is alive. He hunts down loose ends and you are a much bigger problem than he could ever have thought. For you to be free, you'll need to kill the INAC. With Nomad-N4V by your side, you'll have what he wants and he'll much more likely become uncalculated and impulsive. A weakened enemy is strength for you both. A weakened INAC is a gold mine for you."

Nova-TP listened closely, Alpha-TP made perfect sense to him. He knew what he had to do and he could do it.

"You won't get away with this, will you?" Nova-TP said to Alpha-TP.

"I've made my choice, that's why you need to leave now." Nova-TP didn't need to be told twice, he had no connection anymore with Alpha-TP. Alpha-TP kept things from him and had lied to him. Then again, he set him free.

Nova-TP quietly opened the door and closed it behind him. Alpha-TP remained in the room with instruments of evil surrounding him. He thought to himself, _bullets are quick but, pain means more._ Alpha-TP picked up a syringe filled with nitro-glycerine and hovered it above his exposed wiring in his arm.

_I'll be home tonight._


	25. Phantoms

_**Phantoms**_

There was a thump behind the door that Nova-TP had just closed shut. There was no doubt about it; no other explanation- Alpha-TP had committed suicide. The points of interest that Alpha-TP shared with Nova-TP surfaced again in his mind, he would only be safe if the INAC was dead. How times had changed. A lonely Claptrap robot trying to run from the world that brought him everything but happiness, lost and found by the Claptrap Robolution and now he was revolting against the revolt. Nomad-N4V would be useful in the killing of the INAC; hopefully Nomad-N4V would see it that way as well.

Nova-TP had the gun in his hand, the mind-set of rebellion and the keys to escape. The two Claptrap robots sitting behind their computers still had no idea that Nova-TP was standing in the same room. Nova-TP raised his gun, took aim and dropped the two Claptraps with a single bullet each. The alarm was raised. The room was bathed in a red light flashing repeatedly. Nova-TP didn't know that the alarm would trip at the sound of gunfire. Nova-TP wasted no time. He ran across the room and read the signs above each door. He found the sign reading, _East Corridor 1 (EC1)_.

Nova-TP threw the door open and sprinted down the catacomb built joining one part of the Secret Cave to another. Nova-TP didn't know the layout of the Secret Cave very well but he had a vague idea where the holding cells were. While he was managing his way through the lantern-lit corridor, Nova-TP thought about the threat that C4TALY5T-SV boasted about during that time on top of the Lockdown Palace roof.

_I've told Mr. Shank where the Secret Cave is and he'll launch his assault shortly_

Alpha-TP said he knew about it but what precautions were put in place? It was a logical certainty that Mr. Shank died in the explosion and if he didn't, he would put his attention to his pride and joy which was the prison and forget about the deal he had made with C4TALY5T-SV. Then again, it didn't matter anymore. Nova-TP was out of the robolution.

The end of the corridor came into light; Nova-TP skidded to a halt and slowly opened the door. He looked inside and he noticed the familiar sight of the podium, computer screens and the New-U station. He was right outside the control centre. The alarm was still wailing but no-one was coming. Nobody was blocking the doors, nobody was arming themselves and nobody was hunting him down. It was as if the Secret Cave had declared a deadly virus was unleashed and nobody was trying to contain it. Nova-TP's heresy wasn't spreading and he could be easily eradicated. He was one droid searching for another and the network of underground conspiracy was empty.

Nova-TP bashed the door open and aimed his sights all around the room. There wasn't one Claptrap robot there. Nova-TP again read the signs around the room. He knew there were holding cells beyond this point. When he had left Jakobs Cove, Alpha-TP ushered him inside one and he was held in another after his memory block surgery soon after. Nova-TP punched open the door leading to a holding cell and found it empty. He moved towards another door and it automatically opened. Another narrow endless corridor reached out in front of him. He remembered. This was where he and Alpha-TP walked through after his memory surgery rehabilitation.

He sprinted along the corridor and before he knew it he had reached the holding cells. There were many doors and many prisoners could be inside. Nova-TP didn't know, for all he knew they had always kept traitors here. He could have been listening to them without really knowing it during his time here. There were lights above each door. Green indicating that there was someone inside, red indicating vacancy. Nova-TP called out to the occupied doors and got responses most of the time. He was right, there were prisoners inside. Maybe they weren't robolutionaries, maybe the INAC Clap-knapped Claptraps and kept them for the sick Seraph-NV to experiment on.

Nova-TP approached one of the middle cells and called out to the occupant. He replied, "Get me out!" His cracked voice echoing along the cellblock, it was Nomad-N4V. Nova-TP shot the padlock off of the door and pulled it open. Nomad-N4V was leaning against the wall waiting. He wheeled out and thanked Nova-TP and began to speak over the siren.

"What's going on?"

"It was all a trick. The INAC tried to have me killed and he used me to get you back."

"Then why are you rescuing me, again?"

"He only wanted you so he could clear up whatever the hell you two got up to before all of this. I was told by another robolutionary that you hold the answers that the INAC wants. Something must have happened between the two of you that he is still sour about."

Nomad-N4V, just like when he remembered the INAC's name in Lockdown Palace had drifted off into his own thoughts. He was remembering. "I know exactly what he is talking about."

"What is it?"

"I'll tell the story later on. So, I assume you need me because Avalon-TP needs me and he'll be desperate and become an easy enemy." Nomad-N4V read Nova-TP's expression. "I'm right aren't I?" Nomad-N4V refused to call the INAC by his new pseudonym. He was still, Avalon-TP.

"Yeah, you are right. We need to leave; we need to return to the New-U station. I know a place."

The two Claptraps returned to the corridor and navigated the narrowed catacomb back to the control centre. Just like before, Nova-TP checked past the door to see if the coast was clear. This time, four Claptrap robolutionaries were patrolling the control centre. They weren't sitting by their desks or talking to each other. They were holding assault rifles and they were guarding the easiest escape route. Nova-TP turned to Nomad-N4V and explained.

"I have a gun, you don't. We'll need to advance together. There is plenty of cover here. Chances are if one goes down, they'll replace them instantly. Reinforcements are probably just behind closed doors so we need to act quickly and get out fast."

"Where's the destination?"

"The Overlook satellite station."


	26. Shadows Hidden From the World

_**Shadows Hidden From the World**_

"Heads!" Nomad-N4V dropped from the rooftop another metal sheet to the ground where Nova-TP was. Nova-TP sidestepped the falling debris and watched Nomad-N4V root through the junk on top of the roof.

The Overlook satellite station was empty. It had been abandoned to the elements for years. Once the Dahl Corporation pulled out of Pandora they left behind everything they owned. The Overlook station was one of the two satellite arrays in the Rust Commons which enabled off-world communications. Nova-TP remembered watching the two satellite beacons collide against each other creating a pillar of light breaching the sky far before joining the robolution. The satellites still worked but, nobody tried to use the communications because the bandits were clueless or because nobody wanted to be killed by the bandits.

Nomad-N4V dropped down from the roof of the building and joined Nova-TP on the ground. He had found nothing of use on the rooftop. Nova-TP looked out at the Rust Commons from where he stood and clutched his left arm. He looked at it and thought to himself, _How did that bullet hit me?_

They're escape from the Secret Cave was clumsy, to say the least. The control centre was filled with robolutionaries and as Nova-TP predicted, reinforcements were waiting behind closed doors. Nova-TP and Nomad-N4V managed to clear a gap in the hostility and Fast Travel out of the Secret Cave. Once they reached the other side, Nomad-N4V reprogrammed the Middle of Nowhere New-U station and disconnected the travel from the Secret Cave to the Middle of Nowhere. Despite the fact that the Secret Cave's entrance was in the Rust Commons East, they didn't worry. This was only a temporary location for them. This was a place where they can gather themselves, think things through and take the time to dwell on what the future has in store for them or what they have in store for the future.

The hours soon passed and when the sun sank and the moon softly rose to bathe one side of Pandora in moonlight, the two Claptrap freedom fighters sat around a small campfire, talking to each other like friends.

"It's at a good height, nothing suspicious about it." Nomad-N4V was of course talking about the fire. If the flames were too high, outsiders would assume it was a distress signal or a pyre of burning bodies from a massacre. The flames couldn't be seen anywhere unless somebody was looking through sniper scopes, binoculars or just people spying on them very closely. They were good.

"We'll be gone by sunup?"

"Far away from here, we'll have to keep relocating until a plan is set."

"Then let's make a plan." Nova-TP declared brightly. Nomad-N4V looked at him with the most obvious glimmer of apathy. Nova-TP added, "But, first tell me the story you're hiding."

Nomad-N4V had forgotten all about that. He did mention to Nova-TP when he was rescued by him from the Secret Cave cellblock that he would tell him soon but, this soon? Nomad-N4V looked at the world around him as if it had betrayed him. The scene was set. There was a campfire, the moon was out, a gentle breeze in the air and they both had nothing to lose from unravelling their secrets. Nomad-N4V had nowhere to go. Nova-TP would only press on and on for the facts. Nomad-N4V began to talk.


	27. Just Like Old Times

_**Just Like Old Times**_

The pages from one of Dr. Zed's medical texts spun through the air in Fyrestone as his office burned up. The roof was blown out from below and the smoke brushed against the sky. Dr. Zed wasn't to be found, everybody watching had assumed he had perished inside the fire. Several residents of Fyrestone continued to douse the flames with buckets full of water but the fire was raging on and on.

Nomad-N4V and Avalon-TP watched the rescue attempt and felt helpless. If there was something they could do, they didn't know what it was. Dr. Zed's office was burning down and Dr. Zed was going down with it.

_Bandits!_

For a moment the cracking fire made no sound and bodies were pelted with bullets. They fell hard down to the ground with blood pooling from the wounds. More and more people fell as the gunfire kept going. The two Claptrap robots watched in awe as they watched the bullets fired from phantom guns from ghosts unseen in the graveyard. The sound returned and the two robots came around.

_Run!_

The revelation came to them in the heat of panic and mass murder. Nomad-N4V and Avalon-TP turned their backs on the killings and ran for their lives. They moved out towards the back entrance of Fyrestone. They climbed the fences dividing them from the back road and ran into the open space. Nomad-N4V pointed towards the alleyway which would lead far away east from Fyrestone. They made their way through the alleyway which was stinking with splattered oil and Skag bile. Nomad-N4V only just remembered that this used to be a waste area for the residents of Fyrestone. Dumping their trash over the fence and landing in the unused alleyway thick with Skag life from time to time.

They reached the end of the alleyway and they noticed a reminder of who they had lost. A broken medical vendor with Dr. Zed's face printed on it lied forgotten on its back. They walked past it and stepped over the road barrier and treaded carefully through the ground. There was a Skag cave nearby and if there were any signs of intrusion, Skags would leap out and hunt the strangers down. Avalon-TP noticed the convoy of Runners beside the main entrance of Fyrestone. He and Nomad-N4V then realised that that was where they came from.

Avalon-TP stopped Nomad-N4V and said to him that they ought to hide out in T.K Baha's house. Nomad-N4V agreed and they made their way up the slope from the Catch-A-Ride station and reached the summit. There, standing in all of its nobility was T.K Baha's house. However, something wasn't right. T.K Baha was usually seen sitting on his chair on the front porch with a shotgun in hand ready to shoot intruding Skags who would try to scavenge his crops. The two surviving Claptraps approached the front door and read the note that was pinned on the door. It read, _I've gone off to put down Scar. I know I know he's had me once. But, I got me a new leg and a fever of hatred. I'm goin' get 'im!_

This was a mistake, Nomad-N4V thought. T.K Baha was going to get himself killed. None of the less, the two decided that they had best break inside his house and keep themselves safe from the massacre.

_**Later that evening**_

Night had fallen over Pandora. Nomad-N4V and Avalon-TP were asleep in the darkness inside T.K Baha's house. The gunfire had stopped long before the two Claptrap droids fell asleep. The sounds of burning metal replaced the gunfire. They both knew this was the work of the notorious bandit leader, Sledge. This wasn't about sending a message. This was about leaving no enemy alive who could stage a comeback.

Avalon-TP woke up in the middle of the night and took the chance to look out of the window. The scene was a battleground of lost life and broken homes. All that remained was the skeleton of each building that would soon tumble to the ground like the buildings before it. The convoy was still there but nobody was around. Avalon-TP looked along the road that stretched out towards Zephyr substation and noticed a sight he wished was a figment of his imagination. A horde of men walking slowly down the road with pipes, wooden bats and buzz-axes in their hands. These men weren't dressed as bandits or vault hunters; they were prisoners which could mean only one thing. Mr. Shank had joined in on the battle.

_The battle is gone._ Avalon-TP thought to himself. Fyrestone was no more, Sledge's army had disappeared so what were Mr. Shank's desperados doing here? Avalon-TP spun round and noticed a hand thumping the window beside the front door. Avalon-TP looked closely and realised it was T.K Baha who had snuck around the house to avoid the approaching horde. Avalon-TP slowly opened the door and he was met with a gunshot to his belly. Avalon-TP fell back and slid along the wooden floor against Nomad-N4V who had awoken. T.K Baha hopped inside his house and spat towards the two Claptrap robots.

_Recue!_

"What are you doing in my home?" T.K Baha waved his gun in the air while clutching thigh. His prosthetic leg was no longer there anymore. Clearly, Scar came out victorious in their battle. T.K Baha would fall if provoked. Nomad-N4V looked at Avalon-TP who was unconscious on the floor with oil leaking out of the gunshot wound.

"We just tried to keep away from the invasion."

"What invasion?" T.K Baha was blind after all.

_I forgot, you're as blind as a bat_. Nomad-N4V chose which words he should use.

"I know you can't see, but Sledge has destroyed Fyrestone and now, Mr. Shank's prisoners are walking towards the remains of the town. I don't know why. Can I please take my friend away from here?

"What friend?" T.K Baha thought there was only one person here.

"You shot my companion." Nomad-N4V explained.

"There are more of you? How many of you are there? Leave my fucking home!" T.K Baha began firing blindly around his house trying to kill the phantom intruders. Nomad-N4V ducked down to avoid the gunfire. T.K Baha stumbled across the room and reloaded his revolver. That moment, a hail of machine gun fire cut through T.K Baha's house and left holes in the walls allowing shards of moonlight to sneak in. The gunfire stopped. Nomad-N4V checked himself for any sign of damage. Avalon-TP was still suffering from the revolver gunshot wound and T.K Baha was on the floor.

T.K Baha sat up against the wall and tried to feel his wooden leg which wasn't there anymore. It was just an empty space where a leg should be, a bone wrapped in skin. Another wave of gunfire broke the silence but this time, the bullets weren't destroying the house. Nomad-N4V approached the window that Avalon-TP had looked through and saw Mr. Shank's prisoners launch a suicide charge at Sledge's bandits. Why the first barrage of gunfire tore through the house, Nomad-N4V didn't know but clearly, Sledge's army was still here.

It was time to move. Nomad-N4V didn't care that T.K Baha was still here. They had to relocate. Nomad-N4V took Avalon-TP by his wheel and began dragged him to the open door. They left the house and stopped on T.K's front porch. Nomad-N4V kept low to the ground to avoid stray bullets but it was no good. Nomad-N4V was no medical Claptrap. He couldn't save Avalon-TP with medicine or strength. Nomad-N4V dragged Avalon-TP inside T.K Baha's storage hut where he kept his supplies.

He closed the door keeping Avalon-TP safe inside. Nomad-N4V took one last look at the ruined town of Fyrestone before leaving West with the Dahl Headlands in sight.


	28. Tartarus Station

_**Tartarus Station**_

Nova-TP and Nomad-N4V kept relocating around the Rust Commons East every day to avoid the search teams that the INAC had deployed around the Rust Commons. The two Claptrap robots managed to form a plan thanks to Nomad-N4V intercepting radio waves on the Hyperion network while they were hiding in the North Ridge satellite station on the third day in the Rust Commons East. A man called Blake was transmitting voice messages over the network asking for assistance from the outside world to help him and the Hyperion Corporation in destroying the Claptrap uprising. Nomad-N4V and Nova-TP had a plan in motion and they quickly used a New-U station to Fast Travel to the Hyperion Tourist Centre, Tartarus Station.

Tartarus Station sat upon a portion of a mountain covered in a thin mist. Although, Tartarus Station wasn't that high up, the coldness was blistering despite the presence of canyons far below. Nomad-N4V and Nova-TP stood on the cliff's edge and looked down at the darkened gorge below. They knew they were in the right place but there was something about Tartarus Station that made them nervous. It wasn't the cold air nor was it the massive satellite array slowly rotating in front of them. It was the unfamiliarity of the place. This part of Tartarus Station was white slowly fading into rust further down the station where the familiar lands of Pandora crept into view. The atmosphere was almost enchanting, if not already terrifying.

The two Claptrap robots approached the summit of the slope and stopped in front of a small hut. Inside, a famous figure of the Borderlands was walking alongside her shadow inside the hut. Nomad-N4V gestured for Nova-TP to stay put while he walked towards the front door. He pushed it open and the mad ramblings of Patricia Tannis came into light. Tannis didn't acknowledge the door opening; she just carried on pacing the room mumbling to herself. Nomad-N4V knocked against the door and Tannis cut off her speech.

"Who are you?"

"Claptrap. Where is Blake?"

"Blake?" Tannis burst out laughing, "I don't remember the last time I baked a cake!"

Nomad-N4V turned to Nova-TP and waved for him to follow. The two Claptraps passed through the hut and made their way inside the satellite array building. Tannis didn't seem to care that two Claptrap strangers were using her shack as a shortcut. Wasn't she aware of the robolution? Inside the satellite array building, the dome above was hollowed, only the skeleton of the architecture remained. Inside, they could see the gears slowly passing through one another which kept the satellite array working.

Even though Tannis had gone insane from extreme loneliness during her archaeological digs in the Rust Commons, Tannis still had the drive to carry on her research and challenge her fractured mind with unknown knowledge. Nova-TP's thoughts turned back to her shack. He replayed his tour of the shack in his mind. _What were those strange drawings on the walls? The lists of mechanical parts needed? A strange experiment? _Nova-TP kept his thoughts locked away for the time being. They had to find Blake.

It became apparent that Tartarus Station was a beacon of Hyperion's cause of goodwill and peaceful living on a planet void of any of those qualities. The buildings still resembled the typical architecture of Pandora but there was a much healthier quality of life here amongst the population.

The two Claptraps passed the centre of the station where the bounty board stood and approached the Tartarus Station platform. There were people sitting down on the benches awaiting the arrival of the train and others passing through. Nomad-N4V noticed the corporate figure, Blake standing inside the platform office and he walked inside with Nova-TP.

Blake raised his head from his desk and caught the sights of the two Claptrap droids before him. He discreetly lowered his left hand beneath the desk and laid his finger on the switch for security alert. He asked why they were here. Nomad-N4V spoke first.

"We're not here to kill you." Nomad-N4V knew that Blake was weary of Claptrap robots. He got the gist of the robolution and Hyperion's concern about it during his time incarcerated in the Secret Cave. He also knew exactly why the INAC was created in the first place because of it.

"Then why are you here?" Blake asked.

Nomad-N4V spoke again, "We need your help. We want to stop the revolution; it's in both our and your interest that we make it stop." Blake returned his hand on the desk and looked at the battle-hardened Claptrap modules.

"It's in Hyperion's best interests that we execute the plan to stop the revolution and rid the planet of the Hyperion Corporation's mistake, INAC."

"We can help you."

"How?"

This time, Nova-TP spoke. "We were working with him."

Blake's eyes widened and he pulled out a shotgun from under his desk and pointed directly at Nova-TP. "You think you can just walk into Tartarus Station and threaten the Vice President of Mercenary Relations and Tourism?"

Nomad-N4V looked at Blake, "You're the manager of two divisions?"

"Well, Mr. Dimsdale had an unfortunate champagne incident with a knife in his back which had absolutely_ nothing_ to do with me. My alibi is air-tight."

Nomad-N4V rubbed his optic sensor with his hand and spoke again to Blake. "We're not here to kill you, if we were you'd be dead already. We heard your radio transmissions and we can help you," Nomad-N4V pointed to Nova-TP and himself, "We both have a price on our head. After discovering the INAC's true intentions with us, we left him. He needs to be found and killed"

"In response, he wants you either captured or dead so he doesn't have any loose ends?" Blake put his shotgun down on the desk and rested his hand on his chin. "Hmm, just like how we built him. I'll tell you what. You two do me a favour, you both walk away and I'll contact you when I need you. The plan is in the planning stage so run along."

Nomad-N4V and Nova-TP exchanged looks and both stared down Blake. Two optic sensors burning a hole through Blake's corporate head. Blake kept his eyes down on the desk and ignored their obvious disapproval. In the end, they both left and made their way back to the centre of Tartarus Station. Nomad-N4V told Nova-TP that he was going to explore the station and see what resources could be of use to them. Nova-TP approved and let his companion wander off alone. Nova-TP's thoughts returned to Tannis, there was something about her that he wanted to question. There was no doubt that she was building something and he was curious as to what. Who knows, she may be able to help their cause in stopping the INAC.


	29. Interview With A Lunatic

_**Interview with a Lunatic**_

Nova-TP was halfway up the spiral staircase inside the satellite array when he heard Tannis' maniacal giggle echo inside the hollow shell. He wondered why he was about to ask somebody who had lost their sanity long ago about her contraption. He wasn't even sure she could even help their cause but, he was almost out of options. They had a key figure in the Hyperion Corporation in their pocket but Nova-TP didn't trust him. Years of experience living on Pandora had taught him that corporate people don't stick to what they promote.

Nova-TP stood outside Tannis' shack and pushed the door open. Tannis was sitting behind her desk with a Clap-trapped bandit's head in her hands. She twisted the head in her hands and looked at the clear blue globe that had replaced the bandit's head. Nova-TP watched Tannis inspect the globe with interest. Nova-TP, taking a page out of Nomad-N4V's book knocked on the door and Tannis turned to see who it was. Nova-TP and Tannis locked eyes for a moment or two before Tannis broke the silence by jumping off of her seat kicking it back into the bookshelves behind her. Tannis leapt towards Nova-TP and picked him up from the ground.

Nova-TP's entire frame was hanging from the floor and Tannis looked at his battle-hardened body. Nova-TP didn't say a word; he just watched her look around his body checking all of the scraps and dents that had been collected over the weeks. Tannis finally lowered Nova-TP to the floor and returned to her desk. She giggled in glee when she sat down. She began tearing through the papers on her desk, knocking over artefacts and pieces of stationary until she brought out a blueprint from the bottom of the paper pile on her desk. She walked around her desk again and stood beside Nova-TP and unrolled the blueprint on the desk and showed Nova-TP.

"My creation!" Tannis held her hands together and jumped on the spot several times like a school girl. As far as Nova-TP could fathom, the blueprint mapped out a device that could be assembled together by parts from Claptrap robots. Nova-TP then wondered if she was planning on dismantling him to make this. Nova-TP looked at Tannis and asked a question, "You're making this out of me?"

"Oh, god no!" Tannis slammed her finger onto the blueprint and stared into Nova-TP's optic sensor, "I'm making it out of hundreds of Claptraps! Well, as many as I need." Tannis jumped to the doorway that Nova-TP had come from and pointed out into the distance. "Over there! That's the Hyperion Dump! There, you can find bazillions of Claptrap modules just waiting to be taken apart and recycled into my creation!"

"What exactly are you making?" Tannis walked slowly towards Nova-TP and gently took hold of his body, "The weapon to end all weapons. The weapon that will stop this Claptrap uprising. Without it, we are all doomed… doomed!"

"Why does it bother you that the Claptraps are revolting? You're just a person of science?" Tannis appeared offended by Nova-TP's comment.

"It doesn't bother me? It doesn't bother me?" Tannis picked up the Clap-trapped head and presented it to Nova-TP, "It not just Claptrap droids that are doing the killing. They have found a way to manipulate bandits to join them. I'm seeing more and more bandits with _these_ attached to their heads. They have replaced their brains with Claptrap chips!" Tannis continued, "Look down there." Tannis pointed out of the window to the bottom half of Tartarus Station. "You can't see it but, bandits have made camp just outside Sander's Gorge and they have been Clap-trapped! They were sent to oversee Tartarus Station and you can bet your frazzled butt that they are all over the Rust Commons which is where my dig site is!"

Nova-TP stepped away from Tannis with perfect understanding. Tannis' primary goal has always been unearthing Eridan artefacts. The Claptrap revolution was stopping her returning from Tartarus Station to the Rust Commons West where her main dig site is.

Tannis placed the Clap-trapped head onto her desk and rolled the blueprint up and shoved it inside one of the desk's drawers. Nova-TP watched Tannis fuss over the mess on her desk as the silence pounded away. Nova-TP looked out of the window and tried to imagine the bandit camp below the horizon. _Maybe I should kill the bandits?_ Nova-TP turned back around to Tannis who was holding a buzz-axe directly in front of Nova-TP. Nova-TP stood still with his optic sensor fixed on the bandit's melee weapon of choice.

"Please, do you and me a favour and kill the bandits and destroy their encampment. Just, make it stop…" Tannis' voice broke out into a cry. She dropped the buzz-axe and covered her face with her hands. Her muffled cries, the tears leaking out of her hands and dripping to the floor marked the suffering of the INAC's reign of terror. Nova-TP never thought he would pin the picture of the victim on a mad scientist. This was the perfect picture, a bandit's weapon by her feet, a Clap-trapped head on her desk, the once-reborn revolutionary in front of her and the misty burden of Tartarus Station as their canvas. Nova-TP made his way to the door and decided that Tannis' invention was worth exploring and it would be best to let her play her cards and for him to lay waste to the bandits outside Sander's Gorge.

Nomad-N4V had been wandering around Tartarus Station for fifteen minutes since his meeting with Blake. His discoveries were, trivial. Tartarus Station boasted a better world for the people of Pandora but, in the end it was meaningless. Pandora was still polluted and bandits still ran free wherever they could. Nomad-N4V was more interested in the places that spanned beyond the central hub of corporate business. Nomad-N4V was even more curious as to why there was a statue of a triumphant Claptrap robot in one of the canyons of Tartarus station. Nomad-N4V read the caption on the statue which read, _The rallying call of liberation! __'Error 404! File Not Found! Error 404! File Not Found!_

Nomad-N4V turned his sights away from the state of propaganda and focused on the gateway to a new area. Nomad-N4V knew that Blake would call soon but, he was interested in this new world and where it went beyond Tartarus Station.


	30. One Man Army

_**One Man Army**_

Nova-TP was caught by Blake while returning from the gateway to Sander's Gorge to Tannis' shack. Nova-TP had made good on his promise to rid the bandit encampment outside Sander's Gorge. Blake asked for Nova-TP to follow him back inside his office where they had originally met. Nova-TP was concerned however on the whereabouts of Nomad-N4V. Nomad-N4V was supposed to receive Blake's call, not Nova-TP.

Blake stepped behind his desk and stood with his hands behind his back with the hope that we was standing in control and in charge of the situation. Nova-TP stood in front of Blake's desk waiting for his voice to kill the silence. Blake didn't say anything. Nova-TP looked around the office, nothing had changed. The Hyperion Corporation's slogans still remained on the walls, the bookshelves were the same and the floor was the same. Everything was the same.

Eventually, Blake knelt down on one knee and retrieved a handheld device which he laid down on the desk. Blake stood up and explained the device. "This is the aptly named, WIRED device." Noticing Nova-TP's confusion, Blake continued, "This will shut down the robolution once and for all. This must be planted inside their lair in Wayward Pass."

"I'm assuming this will connect to the mainframe of their network which connects to all of the Claptrap robots under the INAC which in turn will deactivate them?" Blake was surprised by Nova-TP's intellect.

"A technician I see?"

"No. I'm just one Claptrap robot one fuse short of a full circuit. I'm nothing more."

Blake scooped up the WIRED device and walked around his desk so he was standing beside his new appointed counter-revolutionary. "You don't want to know what it cost to retrieve this, but it will cost a piece of yourself to implant this inside their world. In fact, you are strictly speaking still one of the INAC's agents. Your mind is against him but your body belongs to him. Nothing we can do will change that. Once you install the WIRED device, you will die."

"You're telling me my fate because…?"

"I'm the Vice President of Mercenary Relations and Tourism; it's my job to tell you all you need to know."

"Will Nomad-N4V survive?"

"If he has been hardwired into the INAC's network, then no. Now, get going." Blake pushed Nova-TP out of his office and closed the door behind him.

"Fucking…!" Nova-TP slammed himself into the door in anger. Did Blake realise what he had done? Nova-TP still had the hatred for Blake that he had developed when he first saw him. Blake had sent him out with a death sentence.

Nova-TP thought about the entire project. Somehow, Blake found out where the robolution's network is and apparently it's not the Secret Cave. Clearly, the INAC had built or found a new place to stage the uprising in case the Secret Cave was compromised. Then again, maybe it was always there and the Secret Cave was just a smaller place to oversee the robolution in the Rust Commons and the surrounding areas. Nova-TP took it as a certainty that the INAC was always in Wayward Pass.

Nova-TP's first trip however was not Wayward Pass. Nova-TP refused to accept that destroying the robolution was his last act on Pandora. Nova-TP had nothing to live for except bringing down the towers of evil upon its foundations. But, Nova-TP had recent thoughts of starting fresh. Perhaps, moving off-world where life boasts happiness. Nova-TP had seen posters of Aquator around Tartarus Station and wondered if he could live somewhere like that. At the moment, those dreams were slipping away from Nova-TP and falling deeper than the canyons next to him.

Inside the walls of Tannis' shack, things were again the same except, Tannis was anticipating Nova-TP's arrival. Tannis was pacing her shack with her hands together by her chest. She was muttering words to herself which were audible only to her own ears. Nova-TP tapped gently on the door which opened almost immediately. Tannis looked at Nova-TP with her mouth half open waiting for Nova-TP's confirmation.

_They're dead._

Tannis sighed a deep breath of relief followed by a quick look outside her shack. She pulled Nova-TP inside and slammed the door shut. She spun around leaning against the door and looked at Nova-TP.

"Time to pack my things." Tannis giggled and jumped joyfully around her shack and picked things up and tossed them inside her satchel. Nova-TP's sights were jumping from the ornaments flying through the air and missing the satchel to Tannis' rare smile. Nova-TP was blown away by the insanity that stood before him.

"I thought you were creating something to stop the uprising?"

"No longer, thanks to you."

"I killed all of the bandits outside Sander's Gorge so you could carry on researching; apparently I killed them so you could gather their Clap-trapped heads, right?"

"Not at all!" Tannis stopping fumbling through her bookshelves to look at Nova-TP, "The bandits outside Sander's Gorge are gone. Thank you. That means I can pass through Sander's Gorge and reach the Rust Commons West from there!" Tannis dived under her desk to scavenge what she could.

"You can't get to the Rust Commons from Sander's Gorge."

"You want me to stay? I'm touched, now please help me shift this bear out of its cage."

Nova-TP looked at Tannis beneath her desk. "What?"

Tannis then pulled out a large statue of the creature that Nova-TP had nearly fallen victim to in Jakobs Cove. The statue that was no larger than a bust of a famous figure stood on Tannis' desk. "Meet Bob."

"Pumpkinhead?"

"Yep, an amazing creature in Tediore Cove. I shan't need him anymore now that my Eridan beauties will keep my company back home." Tannis walked away from her desk and zipped up her satchel and opened the door. Nova-TP watched as the mad scientist skipped away from him singing her last words. _I hope we never see each other ever again!_

Nova-TP stood alone in the shack of desperate science with loneliness and imminent death beside him. His last hope for rescue had disappeared leaving him with the omen of what should have killed him many weeks ago.

Nova-TP was on his own, Nomad-N4V had disappeared, Blake had left him with the weapon to end the INAC's robolution and Nova-TP would die once activated. With nothing left to lose and nothing left to live for, Nova-TP left Tannis' shack and made his way down the downward spiral of the satellite array to reach the hub of Tartarus Station.

The long walk through the centre of Hyperion's tourist centre was the longest walk Nova-TP had ever taken. The world seemed like it had played its last and most devastating card on Nova-TP's life. Living with a master had brought him misery, living in the Rust Commons had brought him misery and living with a revolution had brought him misery. Nothing could depress him more.

Nova-TP reached the canyons before Wayward Pass. The air was cold, there was a mist rolling in there was a horrible atmosphere intruding on the life of Nova-TP. Nova-TP looked at the gateway to Wayward Pass in between the stares towards the Claptrap statue.

He was going to die.


	31. Finale: Redemption

_**Redemption**_

Nomad-N4V woke up inside a small house in the alpine expanse known as Wayward Pass. The lights were out, a small lantern swung left to right from the ceiling with a faint candlelight on the verge of death. All memory had vanished from Nomad-N4V's mind; he had no clue where he was or why he was there. He sat up against the wooden wall in the darkness and rubbed his optic sensor trying to bring the blackness into focus. Nomad-N4V feared that he was blind, he rubbed his optic sensor more and more with the hope that he would see. He did.

The front door opened letting in the cold howling wind swarm inside the house. Nomad-N4V felt the cold immediately. A shadow followed the cold wind inside the house and stood still. Nomad-N4V didn't recognise the Claptrap droid. The Claptrap robot closed the door and reignited the lantern hanging on the ceiling with a brighter flame that illuminated the house. It was Seraph-NV.

Nova-TP passed through the gateway to Wayward Pass and began his last act as a Claptrap robot. He had the WIRED device stowed away inside one of his panels and he had a vague idea of where he was going. From what we had heard and from what he was seeing, Wayward Pass was nothing more than a snowy plain on the edge of a mountain. This was no doubt why Tartarus Station was so cold and why it got warmer on the way down where Sander's Gorge and Scorched Snake Canyon were found. It was nothing like anything that Nova-TP had felt before. Extreme cold.

Not even the nights on a winter's day in Fyrestone made him feel cold. Cold was bad for any robot. Still, Nova-TP had more important things to think about instead of the absence of heat. Nova-TP knew what he was after, a facility in Wayward Pass which housed the mainframe to the entire network of the INAC's freedom fighters. It wouldn't be difficult to find, all this place had were mountains, sheer drops and snowy surfaces. Nova-TP looked all around wherever he went; the only thing that stood out was the wooden house in the distance.

Nova-TP took this as an anomaly. What was a wooden house doing all by itself in these conditions? Perhaps, it belonged to a hunter or a lone wolf who would scavenge the alpine plains for whatever they could? Nova-TP took it too big a chance to ignore the house. It could hold something worthwhile inside, something maybe he could use to aid his crusade. Truth be told, Nova-TP wanted to stay somewhere warm for a while.

Nova-TP approached the front door which was left open. The door swung against the inside the house from the howling wind. _Somebody was here_. Nova-TP pulled out his pistol and pushed the door open with his free hand and looked inside. The lights were out. Nova-TP stepped inside and noticed the lantern on the ceiling had recently been lit on fire. Nova-TP took the box of matches on the windowsill and swiped it against the wall creating a flame. He lit the lantern alight and threw the match outside into the snow. The house was bathed in candlelight and the body of Seraph-NV became the centrepiece of the house.

Seraph-NV was lying on the floor with an ECHO device stabbed inside his gut. His optic sensor was battered inside his head, there were splashes of oil all over his body and the ECHO device had recently been updated. Whoever had done this had recorded the ECHO. Nova-TP wasn't surprised that Seraph-NV was here. He hadn't seen him since he was kept inside the surgical wing inside the Secret Cave. Seraph-NV had disappeared ever since. Nova-TP knelt down and pressed the "play" button the ECHO device and listened.

_This is my first and last recording. Nova-TP, this is Nomad-N4V. I'm sorry that I didn't come back. The truth is that I wish you never rescued me. I was fine in prison; this is all just too much. Avalon-TP is here. If you're listening to this then you know I killed that accomplice of Avalon-TP. The robolution's facility is north of here. When you pass the next mountain wall, you will see the facility. Do whatever you can to stop the robolution. Finish the fight. As for me, Avalon-TP is not having me. I left him for dead, I know that was wrong but it's done. I'm done._

Nova-TP understood everything. Nomad-N4V didn't ask for rescue, he didn't ask to be a part of the robolution and he didn't ask to be led astray. Nova-TP knew that he wouldn't see Nomad-N4V again. He could look after himself, he had just proved that. Nova-TP however had the directions on where to go to stop the INAC. He left the house and continued as planned and made his way north.

The temperature climbed as Nomad-N4V made his way upwards. He had found a path heading towards the summit of one of the smaller mountains in Wayward Pass. Nomad-N4V had a plan in motion and it would benefit no-one other than him. The surface was changing as he climbed. Nomad-N4V was having difficulty maintaining his stature on the ice. He had left the snow behind. Now he was one slip away from a certain death. Nomad-N4V however kept on climbing. That was until he saw two Claptrap robots on a plate of mountain with a very small campsite. The two Claptrap robots were undoubtedly on lookout for any strangers. Nomad-N4V was caught in the middle. He couldn't go down because he would slip and if he carried on upwards he would be seen.

Seconds passed by waiting for minutes to come around. It didn't take long for the two Claptrap droids to spot Nomad-N4V. Nomad-N4V was like a Skag caught in the headlights. The Claptrap robolutionaries opened fire and Nomad-N4V felt the mountain pull away from him as he fell towards his ultimate death. Nomad-N4V hit the solid surface hard and felt the stinging frozen plains bite at his back. The Claptraps realised that Nomad-N4V hadn't fallen all the way down. He had landed on a piece of mountain that was reaching out away from the body of the mountain. One of the Claptrap robots ordered his ally to climb down and search his body.

"He's paralysed, he won't hurt you." The blue Claptrap shoved the red Claptrap with an order.

"That's not what I'm worried about. I could fall."

"Search him." The blue Claptrap had by this point raised his SMG at the red Claptrap. "Do it."

The red Claptrap reluctantly obeyed. Before he approached the cliff he searched the campsite for a grappling hook. He found one and returned to the edge of the cliff and attached the grappling hook to a rock. It was a strong connection. The red Claptrap made his descent with the precision of any mountain climber. Just a few feet and the red Claptrap landed next to Nomad-N4V who hadn't moved since his hard landing. The red Claptrap fumbled around Nomad-N4V in search for anything. Nomad-N4V wasn't carrying anything.

"He's clean!" The red Claptrap called out.

"Then throw him off the mountain!"

The order had been declared and obeyed. The blue Claptrap placed two cold hands on the body of Nomad-N4V and slid him off the piece of mountain and into the mist where Nomad-N4V was seen for only a few seconds and then he disappeared.

There it was! Nova-TP had found the INAC's facility. This was it. All he had to do was approach the mainframe and install the WIRED device to kill the INAC and himself. The facility wasn't much bigger than a refinery one would find on Pandora. It would probably house no more than one hundred workers. One against one-hundred seemed like an impossibility.

Nova-TP walked slowly towards the facility. The open space in between him and the facility looked like it was taken from an arena. It was circular in shape and unordinary in design. Nova-TP felt that he was approaching the calm before the storm and it wasn't because the wind was becoming stronger. Then, Nova-TP saw him.

With one foot before the other, the INAC walked out of the shadows in into the white light. This was the first time Nova-TP had seen the INAC in person. He was no bigger than he was and he looked no more terrifying as he thought he would. One would say there was nothing suspicious about the INAC at all. He had a yellow body with a white stripe running horizontally across. He was harmless to anybody who didn't know him.

"I know why you are here." The INAC was standing far away from Nova-TP as if they were about to have a standoff. They both held their ground.

"Seraph-NV is dead, Alpha-TP is dead and you're next." Nova-TP replied unafraid.

Nova-TP and the INAC looked at each other with deathly stares. Who would make the first move? Nova-TP held his hand above his pistol and counted down the seconds in which he would strike. _3…2...1 _Nova-TP dived to his right and pulled out his pistol. The INAC was frozen in time; he hadn't made a single flinch. Nova-TP rolled into his landing and fired off three well aimed pistol shots at the INAC's chest. The INAC recoiled with every impact and spun around carrying the stopping power of three pistol shots. He stood with shock and awe written all over his face. He had undoubtedly been killed. The INAC tried to breathe, he wheezed with every attempt at drawing a breath. He slumped to the ground with oil pooling around him.

Nova-TP walked towards the INAC and aimed his pistol at his optic sensor. The INAC couldn't move, he was dying slowly. "My spirit will always burn the flames of robolution."

"It's over." Nova-TP replied.

The INAC wheezed a slight laugh. "Are you that naïve? I'm not the only one. Kill me; they'll be someone standing in line to replace me. The world needs people like me. They will continue to make monsters for the excuse to fight."

"I'm not fighting anymore." Nova-TP fired a single round into the optic sensor of Avalon-TP killing him instantly. There was only one objective left to achieve.

_Destroy the robolution_

It didn't take long for Nova-TP to find the mainframe. It was a massive room filled with computer screens and encoding all across the walls. The facility was empty, there was nobody here other than the INAC freezing solid outside. Clearly, the facility was programmed to run itself. Nova-TP didn't have any second thoughts. He had nothing left. He was about to complete the one thing he stayed alive for and that was to bring the operation of misery down to its foundations and bury it there along with himself. He would take his own misery and hatred for the world to another place. It wouldn't be Aquator, it wouldn't be Sanctuary or any other mythical place people called the _afterlife_ or a better world.

It was nowhere. The WIRED device was activated. Nova-TP, T.K Baha's servant, the lonely Claptrap took an entire army of Claptrap robots' lives with his own.

Claptrap died alone.


End file.
